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UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
Summary Report of the Geology, Mineral Resources,
Engineering Geology and Environmental Geochemistry
of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer Area, Wyoming
PART A
Geology and Mineral Resources
By
H. W. Roehler, V. E. Swanson and J.D. Sanchez
Open-File Report 77-360
1977
This report is preliminary and has not been edited or reviewed for conformity with U.S. Geological Survey standards and nomenclature,
Contents
Page
Introduction 1
Regional Geology 3
Geomorphology 3
Overthrust Belt 3
Green River Basin 4
Rock Springs uplift 5
Great Divide Basin 6
Washakie Basin 6
Stratigraphy 7
Structure ~ ,8
Overthrust Belt 11
Green River Basin 11
Rock Springs uplift 12
Great Divide Basin 13
Washakie Basin 13
Paleontology 14
Mineral Deposits 16
Coal 16
Discovery and development 16
Geological investigations 18
Stratigraphy 19
Hams Fork Coal Region 19
Evans ton Formation 19
Adaville Formation 22
Frontier Formation 23
Bear River Formation 28
Page Mineral Deposits Continued
Coal Continued
Stratigraphy Continued
Green River Coal Region 28
Wasatch Formation 29
Fort Union Formation 31
Lance Formation 32
Almond Formation 34
Rock Springs Formation 36
Structure 38
Coal quality and composition 39
Resources 51
Oil and Gas 53
Phosphate 56
Trona 57
Halite 58
Minerals of Potential Economic Value 59
Oil Shale 59
Uranium 60
Titanium 62
Potash 63
Zeolites 63
Alunite and Clay 64
Helium 65
Sulfur 66
Copper, Silver and zinc 67
Black water 68
Construction materials 69
References Cited 71
ii
Tables
PageTable 1. Analysis of bituminous coal sample from the Rock Springs
Formation of Late Cretaceous age, from Rainbow No. 8 Mine near Rock Springs Wyo. 41
2. Composition of coal in the Adaville Formation, LincolnCounty, Wyo., based on standard coal analyses of 19 samples,reported in percent on as-received basis (modified fromGlass, 1975) . 42
3. Average (arithmetic mean) composition and observed range of 10 major and minor oxides and 20 trace elements in coal ash, and contents of seven additional trace elements in 14 coal samples from the Adaville Formation, Lincoln County, Wyo. (modified from Glass, 1975). 43
4. Composition of coal in the Deadman bed (local usage), Jim Bridger Mine, Sweetwater County, Wyo., based on standard coal analysis of five composite samples reported in percent on as-received basis. Analyses by Coal Analysis Section, U.S. Bureau of Mines, Pittsburg, Pa. 45
5. Average (arithmetic mean) composition and observed range of 10 major and minor oxides and 20 trace elements in coal ash, and contents of seven additional trace elements in 12 coal samples, Deadman bed (local usage), Jim Bridger Mine, Sweetwater County, Wyo. -46
6. Average (arithmetic mean) composition and observed range of 10 major and minor oxides and 20 trace elements in coal ash, and contents of seven additional trace elements in 295 Rocky Mountain province coal samples. 48
7. Identified original coal resources in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area (in millions of short tons). 52
8. Production statistics for oil and gas for 1972 and oilcharacteristics in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area. 55
iii
Illustrations
Page Figure 1. Map of southwestern Wyoming and adjacent areas showing
the location of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area. 2
2. Sedimentary section in the western part of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area. 8
3. Sedimentary section in the eastern part of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area. 9
4. Fossil sites in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area. 15
5. Sections of the Almy coal bed in the Evanston Formationnear Almy, Wyoming (From Veatch, 1907). 21
6. Geologic section of the Adaville Formation in thevicinity of the Elkol Mine, Kemmerer coal field, in T. 20 N., R. 117 W. Vertical scale 1 inch equals 300 feet. (From Hunter, 1950) 24
7. Map of the Kemmerer coal field showing the locations ofcoal beds and mine adits. ^"
8. Cross-section of the Frontier Formation at the Kemmerercoal field - (From Hunter, 1950) 27
9. Correlations of coal-producing formations in the RockSprings uplift. 33
10. Map of the Rock Springs coal field showing the dip ofstrata and the orientation of primary joints.
11. Penetration chart of oil and gas fields in the Sweetwater- Kemmerer area.
iv
Plates
1. Topographic map of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area.
2. Geologic map of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area.
3. Structure contours on the Dakota Formation.
4. Generalized west-east geologic cross-section along the
5th Standard Parallel North.
5. Map showing the location of coal deposits in the Sweetwater-
Kemmerer area.
6. Map showing the location of oil, gas, trona, halite and
phosphate deposits.
7. Map showing the location of mineral deposits of potential
economic value.
8. Map showing the location of construction materials.
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INTRODUCTION
This report summarizes the geology and mineral resources of the
Sweetwater-Kemmerer coal-producing area, which includes part of the Green
River Coal Region in Sweetwater County, Wyo., and part of the Hams Fork
Coal Region in Lincoln and Uinta Counties, Wyo. The Sweetwater-Kemmerer
area is roughly rectangular and encompasses more than 13,500 square miles
in the southwest corner of the state (fig. 1). Rock Springs, Green River,
Kemmerer, and Evanston are the largest cities. U.S. Interstate Highway
80 and the Union Pacific Railroad cross the area and provide access to
other points within the area.
The report has been prepared by the U.S. Geological Survey for use
in preparing environmental impact statements to facilitate coal leasing
and mining in southwest Wyoming.
SWEETWATER UPLIFT
GREAT DIVIDE
BASIN
Kemmefer/VxBASI
ASHAKIE BASIN
SAND WASH BASIN
C 0 L 0.
Figure 1. Map of southwestern Ivyonang and adjacent areas. (The Sweetwater- Kemmerer area is indicated by stipple pattern.)
REGIONAL GEOLOGY
Geomorphology
The Sweetwater-Kemmerer area is a region of low mountains and desert
basins. It is located in the Middle Rocky Mountains and is divided
geologically and geographically from west to east into the Overthrust Belt,
Green River Basin, Rock Springs uplift, Great Divide Basin, and Washakie
Basin (pi. 1). The topography is strongly influenced by differential
erosion of folded and faulted sedimentary rocks which are mostly of
Tertiary age in the Green River, Great Divide, and Washakie Basins, and
of Cretaceous and older ages in the Overthrust Belt and Rock Springs
Uplift (pi. 2). None of the mountains is sufficiently uplifted, faulted,
or eroded to expose granitic rocks. Volcanic rocks are present only in
the Leucite Hills in the northern part of the Rock Springs uplift.
Altitudes in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area generally range from 6,000
to 9,000 feet. Annual precipitation ranges from 7 to 15 inches (Root
and others, 1973); annual runoff is between 0.5 and 10 inches (U.S. Geological
Survey, Senate Document No. 76, p. 33). Annual temperatures usually range
between -30°F and +100°F. The major drainageway is the Green River on
which the Flaming Gorge and Fontenelle Reservoirs are major water storage
sites. Vegetation consists mostly of pine, cedar, and aspen trees at
higher altitudes and sparse sagebrush, greasewood, and desert grasses at
lower altitudes. Little land is under cultivation because of a very
short growing season and lack of water for irrigation. The chief
industries are cattle and sheep ranching, oil and gas producing, trona
mining, and coal mining. Land and mineral ownership is roughly 60 percent
Federal government, 20 percent Union Pacific Railroad, 15 percent private,
and 5 percent State of Wyoming.
Overthrust Belt
The Overthrust Belt is a series of north-south trending linear folds
and faults that form mountains and valleys. Cenozoic, Mesozoic, and
Paleozoic rocks are exposed at altitudes between 6,000 and 10,200 feet
above sea level. Major mountain ranges include the Tunp Range, Sublette
Range, and Commissary Ridge. The Eastern edge of the Overthrust Belt
is roughly delineated by a narrow north-south trending, east-facing
escarpment, Oyster Ridge. Oyster Ridge is separated from areas of
higher relief to the west by a long sage- and grass-covered valley,
several miles in width, called Mammoth Hollow. Situated within linear
structures of the Overthrust belt is a long narrow synclinal basin,
Fossil Syncline, which extends from T. 27 N., R. 117 W., southward
through Fossil and east of Evanston to T. 12 N., R. 120-121 W. (pi. 1).
Fossil Syncline has altitudes between 6,700 and 7,500 feet. Rougher partly
forested terrain lying between Fossil Syncline on the east and the valley
of Bear River on the west has altitudes generally between 7,000 and 8,000
feet.
A major drainage divide is present in the Overthrust Belt. The
eastern part of the belt is drained by the headwaters of the Hams Fork
and Blacks Fork Rivers that flow eastward and are part of the Green
River-Colorado River drainage system. The western part of the belt is
drained by the Bear River that flows northward and is part of the
Columbia River drainage system.
Green River Basin
The structural and topographic basin situated between the Overthrust
Belt and the Rock Springs uplift is the Green River Basin (pi. 1). Parts
of the basin extend north and south of the boundaries of the
Sweetwater-Kemmerer area. Altitudes in the basin range from slightly less
than 6,000 feet on Flaming Gorge Reservoir in T. 12 N., R. 108 W., to
more than 9,700 feet in T. 12 N., R. 116 W. The central part of the
basin is a rolling grass- and sage-covered plain that is interrupted
by ridges and small buttes. Altitudes of the central plain are between
6,300 feet and 6,700 feet, but they rise perceptively toward the basin
margins. Badlands are present on the central plain at the Blue Rim,
In T. 21-22 N., R. 108-109 W., in the area between McKinnon Junction and
F=yman in T. 14-16 N., R. 109-114 W., and locally in other places. A
large east-facing escarpment, White Mountain, defines the eastern edge
of the basin. Pilot Butte is a small lava-capped landmark on the top
of White Mountain in T. 19 N., R. 106 W. At the southern margin of the
basin the landscape is broken up into a number of large buttes and
mesas that include Little Mountain in T. 13 N., R. 105-106 W., Twin
Buttes in T. 13 N., R. 109-110 W., Cedar Mountain in T. 13-14 N. ,
R. 111-113 w., and Sage Creek Mountain in T. 13-14 N., R. 114 W. Gently
northward-sloping conglomerates that cap these buttes and mesas are the
remnants of deposits lying on a middle Tertiary erosion surface.
The Green River Basin is drained by the Green River and a number of
perennial tributary streams. The Big Sandy River flows southwestward
through Farson in T. 25 N., R. 106 W., and joins the Green River in T. 22 N.,
R. 109 W. The Hams Fork and Blacks Fork Rivers drain the western and
southwestern parts of the basin. The Hams Fork River flows eastward
through Opal in T. 21 N., R. 114 W., and joins the Blacks Fork River near
Granger in T. 19 N., R. Ill W. The Blacks Fork River then flows southeast
from near Granger and enters the Flaming Gorge Reservoir in T. 17 N.,
R. 108 W. The Big Sandy, Hams Fork, and Blacks Fork Rivers provide water
for irrigating farmlands near Farson and Lyman.
Rock Springs uplift
The Rock Springs uplift is a deeply eroded structural upwarp lying
between the Green River Basin on the west and the Great Divide and
Washakie Basins on the east. The core of the uplift is composed of soft
gray shale that weathers to a depression called Baxter Basin (pi. 1).
Baxter Basin has altitudes between 6,300 and 6,800 feet and low relief;
it is characterized by low, rounded, sage- and grass-covered hills and
valleys and by a few cliffs, ledges, and benches. A few playa lakes are
present in the topographically lowest parts of the basin. The outer
parts of the uplift comprise a wide oval belt of inward facing, sparsely
vegetated, gray, yellow, and white sandstone escarpments that rise
several hundred feet above Baxter Basin. Lava-capped buttes and mesas,
cinder cones, and pipes, comprising erosional remnants of .the late
Tertiary Leucite Hills volcanic field, are present in the northern part
of the uplift. Notable among the volcanic landforms are lava-capped
South Table Mountain in T. 22 N., R. 103 W. and Spring Butte in T. 22 N.,
R. 101 W. Black Butte in T. 18 N., R. 101 W., and Aspen Mountain in
T. 17 N., R. 104 W. are prominent landmarks capped by hydro thermally
altered sandstones. The highest altitude in the uplift is 9,680 feet
on Aspen Mountain in T. 17 N., R. 104 W. Bacon Ridge, a gently
north-sloping plateau in the southwest part of the uplift, is capped by a
flat-lying conglomerate of middle Tertiary age that unconformably overlies
older rocks of early Tertiary and Late Cretaceous age.
The major drainage in the Rock Springs uplift is Bitter Creek, which
flows from east to west across the center of the uplift. Larger tributaries
of Bitter Creek are Salt Wells Creek in the southern part of the uplift,
and Horse thief Canyon, Deadman Wash, and Long Canyon in the northern part
of the uplift.
Great Divide Basin
The Great Divide Basin is a large structural and topographic basin
located northeast of the Rock Springs uplift (pi. 1). Only the western
part of the basin, situated generally in T. 20-26 N., R. 94-103 W., is
included in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area. The basin is mostly an arid
desert having minor topographic relief and an internal drainage system.
The landscape is characterized by low rolling partly sage-covered hills
that are occasionally interrupted by areas of sand dunes, badlands,
alkali flats, and dry lake beds. The lowest parts of the basin have
elevations between 6,500 and 7,500 feet, but several landmarks in the
western parts of the basin are a few hundred feet higher. These landmarks
include the lava-capped buttes, Black Rock in T. 22 N., R. 101 W., and
Steamboat Butte in T. 23 N., R. 102 W., and the sandstone-capped buttes,
the Pinnacles in T. 24 N., R. 100 W. and Oregon Buttes in T. 26 N.,
R. 101 W. A low, gently east-plunging anticline, Wamsutter arch,
separates the Great Divide Basin from the Washakie Basin to the south.
Washakie Basin
The Washakie Basin is a structural and topographic basin southeast
of the Rock Springs uplift (pi. 1). Altitudes range from 6,100 feet
to 8,700 feet. The overall configuration of the basin is roughly a
square bowl with an encircling rim that stands several hundred feet above
the central part of the basin. This rim is called Laney Rim along the
northern edge of the basin, Kinney Rim along the western edge of the
basin, and Cherokee Ridge along the southern edge of the basin. Sand
Hill and Pine Butte are landmarks on Kinney Rim in T. 15-16 N., R. 100 W.
Four lesser rims rise 100 to 300 feet above the flatter terrain in the
central part of the basin. Between the lesser rims the basin is largely
sage- and greasewood-covered ridges and h511s interrupted by areas of
badlands. No perennial streams cross the basin, but in a few places
springs provide enough water for the development of small grass-covered
meadows. Sand dunes are present in many intermittent drainages and
commonly cover large low-lying areas. The dominant feature of the landscape
in the north-central part of the basin is Haystack Mountain, which trends
east-west for almost 10 miles and has several hundred feet of relief. The
name Adobe Town has been applied to a 40- to 50-square-mile area near the
geographic center of the basin where erosion has created unusual badland
configurations. Adobe Town is bounded on the west by a broad relatively
undissected sand-dune- and alluvial-covered plain that is present over
most of the western interior of the basin. The Washakie Basin is
drained by Bitter Creek, Sand Creek, and Shell Creek, which are distant
tributaries of the Green River.
Vermillion Creek Basin is small topographic basin that straddles the
Colorado-Wyoming stateline southwest of the Washakie Basin (pi. 1). The
northern part of Vermillion Creek Basin in Wyoming occupies about 250
square miles and has altitudes between 6,500 and 7,500 feet. The basin
is bounded on the east by Kinney Rim and on the west by Pine Mountain.
Exposed rocks comprise intertongued parts of the Wasatch and Green River
Formations. The landscape consists of sage-covered, or barren, low
ridges and valleys that are on the faulted and eroded flanks of northeast
and northwest-trending minor folds. The basin is drained by Vermillion
Creek, which flows southwest to the Green River.
Stratigraphy
Formation names, ages, and lithologies in the western part of the
Sweetwater-Kemmerer area, shown on figure 2, differ from those used in
the eastern part of the area, shown on figure 3. Much of the nomenclature
is used consistently in both areas, but occasionally different names are
applied to the same rock unit, or a lithologic unit may be entirely
missing in one of the areas.
Rocks in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area range in age from Cambrian
to Tertiary and have a cumulative thickness of nearly 19,000 feet. The
succession was deposited in three stages that reflect the regional
geologic history. Stage one; Rocks of Cambrian to Jurassic age thicken
westward and were largely deposited in seaways that were centered in
PERIOD FORMATION LITHOlJOGY
shale, buff siltstone, variegated shale, gray and green mudstone and gray sandstone
^.VtaMtch-.rfa Variegated shale and gray sandstone
shale and sandstone and coal
r.r.'rrf^ Gray shale and sandstone and coal
FEET 5,000-
4,000-
3,000-
2,000-
1,000-
~ ^-"M Gray shale
METRES . | 500'
-1,000
-5OO
0--0 .
~TJ.^?Xl?/.T±V^.'7::r.?.''f::!.':r~k Gray shale and sandstone and coal
5^z-t?5^Jfp?^^:|^fi"5^^ Dark-gray siliceous shale
l^^B^ R'^f^h^}'^^^ Variegated shale and gray sandstone
Light-gray claystone, sandstone and limestone
1 f ' ' ^j _' _r: .'.., ^ _' j- 1 ;^_"L --r.J~z '--,--'-- 1 ,"*i
Twin Creek ui-JillJ'.!'..'.';!J!\ Gray limestone and yellow sandstone
sandstone U Variegated shale and gray sandstone
Buff and gray siltstone and limestone
PERMIAN
Variegated gypsiferous shale and gray siltstone Gray dolomite and phosphatic shale
PENN- SYLVANIAN
^^*?^^^^ Gray sandstone and some limestone 7v-: . :' .;. ''. : : ^tT^'- :^\ w«'ls - : '..j..'; ;' -.''.,'i'-/:\
Gray and brown limestonefj*7*~*^7*~^*~^*7**f~*-f~*f~*r~'fa r*Bfffcy^hHr?35r\ ay dolomite
Tan and
CAMBRIAN
Gray^and green limestone and
graywaxy limestone
:^ :. :.^:":-:V*>^V-^'v-"'/^V.'V:". :"-':" " -: ":' ":*/Hoihyod St'.}:/:::.v r-y.vV'^'V Gray and tan sandstone
Figure 2. Sedimentary section in the western part of the Swe e twa te r-Kemme re r ares
8
PERIOD FORMATION LITHOLOGY
x- ce
ceUJ
Gray shale and sandstone
Oil shale, buff siltstone, red and green mudstone, and gray sandstone and limestone FEET METRES
5.00O %. | (500
Red and gray shale and grayHlf^r'^ia sandstone
Gray carbonaceous shale and = --==^ sandstone and coal
^^-- .....- ! .'/vL'*'*"!.''"'131117:"".>"£ ' " ~^1 Gray shale and sandstone
4,000-
3poo-
2,000i
ipoo-^^^^Erfc'i&.ii/f^ftfk^^^l Gray sandstone
COIDoUJo
UJQ: o
Gray siltstone and shale
EL~:^£=?T.~. ~ !Trr-^.---S Gray shale and sandstone _-_A and coal
sit -" - ~ -~ -~ - ~ -~ -~-\ Gray shale
-I.OOO
-500
izZj^.Ug)^^^:^^ sandstone and shale ----------^AsT^sjTriP^py?^^ Dark-gray siliceous shale
hVT,*vfpcKoto Ss.r~ ;-?-^.v^^-.-:-.c^.;.o^;. v;-^,.4^;^^ Gray sandstone and shale
JURASSIC "111. Morrison . JZ"_"77;..Tr^...T.
PENN-
SYLVAN1AN
CAMBRIAN
Variegated shaleGray limestone and sandstone Rea and green shaleGray and buff sandstone
Variegated partly gypsiferous shale and sandstone
Brown and gray dolomite
Gray sandstone and dolomitt j^^J^^V.Grav sandstone, limestone,,,. . r7-7rr.-..-r. .... ..,..» and d0^omite
Tan and brown dolomiteRed sandstone and qolomite . _ »ray and green shale ana sandstone
yy^\;?:^£/i^/j:^s:^:::^^^i::^ Fiqihcp'd.'$».>.' :::v'A:-':f:' ':' ':' ' '/--:-:;̂ G^ay sandstone
Figure J. Sedircantary section in the^eastern part of the Sweetwater-Keromerer areat
Idaho and Utah. Limestone and dolomite deposited in marine environments
in these seaways are found in the Twin Creek, Thaynes, Phosphoria, Madison,
Darby, Big Horn, Gallatin, and Gros Ventre Formations. Shale and
sandstone, composing marine shelf, coastal, and continental deposits are
found in the Morrison, Curtis, Entrada, Carmel, Nugget, Red Peak, Weber,
Amsden, and Flathead Formations. Stage two: Rocks of Cretaceous age were
mostly deposited along the western edge of a broad, shallow, north-south
trending seaway that crossed central North America. They are mostly
marine shale, but they also include fluvial shale and sandstone and
deltaic deposits including coal. These rocks are the Beckwith, Bear River,
Aspen, Frontier, Hilliard, Adaville, and lower Evanston Formations in the
western part of the area, and the Dakota, Aspen, Frontier, Baxter, Blair,
Rock Springs, Ericson, Almond, Lewis, and Lance Formations in the eastern
part of the area. Stage three; Rocks of Tertiary are are entirely
continental in origin. They were deposited in intermontane basins in
swamps and lakes and on floodplains during mountain-building episodes of
the Middle Rocky Mountains. They are mostly fluvial sandstone and shale,
but coal was locally deposited in swamps, and oil shale and evaporites
(chiefly trona) were deposited in lacustrine environments. These rocks
are the upper Evanston, Fort Union, Wasatch, Green River, and Bridger
Formations that are preserved in Fossil Syncline and in the Green River,
Great Divide, and Washakie Basins.
Surficial deposits of Quaternary alluvium are present in most of
the valleys of large streams. Quarternary and Tertiary gravel and
conglomerate cap pediments in scattered localities. A west-trending
belt of active sand dunes 3 to 5 miles wide crosses the northern tip of
the Rock Springs uplift.
10
Structure
The principal structures in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area formed
during the Laramide orogeny between 40 and 90 million years ago, when
compressional forces acting along north- and northwest-trending alignments
caused extensive folding and faulting of rock units. The overall
structural relations of the area are shown on a structure contour map of
the Cretaceous Dakota Formation, (pi. 3).
Overthrust Belt
The structural pattern of the Overthrust Belt is that of large,
compressed, partly overturned folds that are broken into sheets by thrust
faults. The direction of movement was dominantly eastward. The Absaroka
thrust and the Darby thrust are major faults; the Meridian anticline and
Lazeart syncline are major folds (pi. 4). According to Rubey (1954, p. 125)
three principal stages of structural activity are recognizable: 1) a very
long preliminary stage of geosynclinal sinking and accompanying uplift
farther to the west; 2) a relatively brief climax of intensive deformation
and piling up of thrust plates within the belt itself; and 3) a closing
stage during which the site of crustal sinking moved eastward, and rocks
in the Overthrust Belt were broken and tilted along large faults of the
Basin-Range type. Rubey (1951, p. 1475) states that the Absaroka thrust,
with displacement greater than 35 miles, is the largest fault within the
Overthrust Belt. Blackstone (1955, p. 123) believed the Absaroka thrust
sheet resulted from a series of faults with no greater lateral displacement
than 4-5 miles each.
Fossil Syncline is a shallow structural depression composed of
Tertiary rocks that overlie more deformed Cretaceous and older rocks
(pi. 4). The syncline was formed during the Laramide orogeny following
the deposition of tlie Cretaceous Adaville Formation, but before the
Tertiary Almy Formation was deposited.
Green River Basin
The Green River Basin is the largest syncline in the Middle Rocky
Mountains. The major axis trends north-south and is situated slightly
east of the center of the basin. A north-trending anticline, the Church
Buttes-Moxa arch, is present in Cretaceous and older rocks near the
western boundary of Sweetwater County (pis. 3-4). A minor unnamed
syncline is present west of the Church Buttes-Moxa arch, between the arch
11
and Meridian anticline. Relatively undeformed Tertiary rocks that are
exposed across the basin have dips as much as 8 degrees at the basin
margins, but dip less than 2 degrees in central parts of the basin.
Cretaceous and older rocks that crop out at the edges of the basin are
more deformed and dip as much as 35 degrees. Most of the structural
expression of Cretaceous and older rocks in central parts of the basin
was obliterated by pre-Tertiary erosion and subsequent subsidence and
deposition of Tertiary sediments.
Rock Springs uplift
The Rock Springs uplift is a doubly plunging asymmetric anticline.
The steep limb is on the west, where dips are between 4 and 35 degrees;
dips on the east limb are between 5 and 8 degrees (pi. 4). The
irregular shape of the anticline results from a number of secondary
folds on the flanks of the major structure. Notable among the
secondary folds are the Wamsutter arch which causes a large convex
bulge near the center of the east flank, and the Salt Wells anticline,
a minor fold on the east flank near the southern tip of the uplift.
Many high-angle normal and reverse faults of early Tertiary age trend
generally northeast and dissect the uplift (pis. 2-3).
The Rock Springs uplift has a long structural history involving at
least five periods of uplift with intervening periods of erosion. Gentle
upwarping movements first took place in the Late Cretaceous Period
during the deposition of the Baxter and Blair Formations. These were
followed by a major uplift at the close of the Cretaceous Period after
the deposition of the Lance Formation. Following a long period of
erosion, renewed minor uplifting took place several times in the early
Tertiary Period during the deposition of the Fort Union Formation.
Another minor uplift took place during the deposition of the Green
River Formation. The last and largest uplift, which resulted in
present-day structural configurations, took place in the middle Tertiary
Period, after deposition of the Bridger Formation, but before the
deposition of the Bishop Conglomerate. The late Tertiary history of the
Rock Springs uplift includes volcanic activity in the Leucite Hills and
additional cycles of erosion.
12
Great Divide Basin
The Great Divide Basin is a shallow asymmetric syncline. The axis
of the syncline trends northwestward along the eastern and northern margins
of the basin, northeast of the boundaries of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area.
The southwestern part of the basin, which lies within the area of
investigation, consists of rocks that dip uniformly northeast at 2 to 5
degrees (pi. 3).
Washakie Basin
The major structural axis of the Washakie Basin syncline trends
southwest-northeast across the center of the basin (pi. 3). The margins
of the basin are deformed by folds, the axes of which plunge at acute
angles toward the major synclinal axis. The exposed rocks dip basinward
3 to 8 degrees, except in the southwestern part of the basin where the
dips are locally as much as 25 degrees. Several high-angle normal faults
trending northwest are present along Cherokee Ridge in the southern part
of the basin.
13
PALEONTOLOGY
The earliest known reference to fossils in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer
area was in 1842 by Captain J. C. Fremont, who collected shells from the
Wasatch Formation and leaves from the Frontier Formation near Cumberland
Gap in T. 19 N., R. 116 W. (Veatch, 1907, p. 17 ). Nearly 20 years later
Meek (1860, p. 311) described fossils from the Frontier and Bear River
Formations in the Overthrust Belt that had been collected by Captain
J. H. Simpson in 1858. Fossil mammals were first discovered in the
Green River Basin by Dr. J. Van A. Carter, who accompanied the Hayden
Survey parties; they were described by Dr. Joseph Leidy in 1868-1870
(Leidy, 1973). In a report dated 1871, Hayden mentions the discovery of
fossil fish in a cut excavated by the Union Pacific Railroad about 2
miles west of Green River, Wyo. Fossil plants collected near Cumberland
Gap were described by Lesquereux in 1872. Cope (1872, p. 481) probably
collected the first dinosaur, from near Black Butte Station in T. 18 N.,
R. 100 W. Additional mammal collections from the Green River and
Washakie Basins were described by Marsh in 1876. In the period 1877-1886
important vertebrate fossils were collected by expeditions from the
Princeton and American Museums under the direction of W. B. Scott,
H. F. Osborn, and J. L. Wortman (Matthew, 1909, p. 294). Since these
early explorations, groups from many museums, universities, and government
agencies have extensively searched the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area for
fossils. The fauna and flora identified by these parties are far too
extensive to list in this report, but some of the more important plant,
mammal, dinosaur, bird, and fish fossil sites, and a list of references,
are shown on Figure 4. Invertebrate fossils, expecially snails and
clams, are so abundant that localities where they can be found were
purposely omitted from Figure 4.
14
EXPLANATION
FOSSIL SIT
ES
PU
nt
O
K »
l
^
Dinosaur
^
Bird
-J- riihREFERENCES
1 R
oehler, H
. W
. (U
SCS,
Unpublished d
ata)2
Roehler.
H.
W,,
19753
Univ
ersity
of C
aliforn
ia, B
erkeley ir>
(UnpublU
hed data)
H
k R
oehler, H
. W
. 19?<4*
5 R
oehler, H
. W
. 197<4o
6 R
oehler, H
. W
. 1973d
7 R
oih
ler. U
. W
. 1973o
8 R
oehler, H
. W
. 19?2b
9 R
oehler. H
. W
. 19?6a
10 Roehler,
H.
W.
1973«11
KcG
rew.
P.
0.,
and R
oohler, 1953
12 K
arih, 0.
C..
163513 Grander,
W«U«r, 1909
11* Roehler,
H. W.,
1976e15
Bradley, W.
H., 19^5
16 Plp
irin<
os,
C.
N.,
196117 C
atin, C
. L
ewia,
196918 G
atin, C
. U
wii,
19^219 K
elson, K
icKael
E.,
197320 G
aiin. C
. L
ov
li, 1962
21 K
cGrew
. P
. 0
., and
Casillian
o,
Hlohael,
19?622
Oriel, S
. S
., 1962
23 KacG
initl*. H
. D
,. 1969
21* HcC
rew.
P.
0.,
and Sulliv
an,
Raym
ond, 1970
2J Cope,
E.
D.,
Ifl7226
Kistn
er, P
rank, 1973
2? T
racey, J.
I., Jr.,
end O
riel, S.
S.,
195928
Brodkorb,
Pierce,
197029 F
educcla, A
lan, and
McG
rew,
P.
0.,
1971* .30
Dorf,
Erlin
a:, 1955
31 L
ewis,
C.
E.
(USG
S, U
npublished data)
101'
Fig
ure
(u F
ossil
sites
in
the Sw
eetwater-K
enmr.erer
area.
MINERAL DEPOSITS
Coal
Discovery and Development
Coal has been mined and used in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer coal area
(pi. 5) for more than 150 years. The early fur trappers and traders knew
of and used coal; this fact was recorded by General W. H. Ashley in 1825
(Rock Springs Daily Rocket-Miner, March 15, 1975). Captain B. L. E.
Bonneville explored part of the area in 1834-1835, and in 1837 published
the first map showing the major geographical features. Captain John
C. Fremont, while exploring for the United States Army, discovered coal
in the Kemmerer coal field in the Frontier Formation on Muddy Creek on
August 19, 1843 (Veatch, 1907, p. 117). During these early explorations
much of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area was located within territory claimed
by Mexico, and it remained so until the Mexican cession of 1848. "In
August, 1852, the first mention was made of Sweetwater County coal and
this was by Howard Stansbury of the topographical engineers. Stansbury
mentions that Jim Bridger led him and his crew up the Green River to
Bitter Creek and then east along Bitter Creek to present Rock Springs
which they reached in September, 1852. Stansbury records the location
of a 10-foot bed of coal on the south side of Bitter Creek and this was
where Blairtown was located 16 years later" (Rock Springs Daily Rocket-
Miner, March 15, 1975).
Coal mining did not commence in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area
until the Union Pacific Railroad was constructed across southwest Wyoming
in 1868. The first mines in the Rock Springs coal field were opened at
Rock Springs and Point of Rocks in 1868 and produced more than 21,000
tons of coal that year (Schultz, 1910, p. 250). Other mines were
opened at about the same time near Evanston, Cokeville, and Almy, but
most of these closed before 1901 (Veatch, 1907). The first mines in the
Kemmerer coal field were opened in the region of Hodges Pass in 1876
(Hunter, 1950, p. 123). A branch line of the Union Pacific Railroad
was built in 1900 to Superior in the Rock Springs coal field, and mining
began there shortly thereafter. Many other mines were subsequently
opened and abandoned in the Sweetwater and Kemmerer coal fields after 1900.
16
Underground mining reached a peak in 1945, during World War II, when
the coal was used to fire steam engines on the Union Pacific Railroad
and to generate electricity at small power plants. More than 6 million
tons of coal were mined in 1945 (Root and others, 1973). Between 1950
and 1960 the railroad converted to diesel engines and the electric-power
generating plants converted to other fuels; these events caused the
collapse of the coal market and most of the mines were forced to close.
Mining was reduced to 315,000 tons per year in 1960 in the Kemmerer coal
field (Townsend, 1960, p. 251), and to less than 500,000 tons per year
in 1972 in the Rock Springs coal field (Root and others, 1973). A
resurgence of the coal industry is currently taking place following
increased demands for electric power generated from low-sulfur strip-
mined coals in the western United States. Two mine-mouth power plants
are presently operating in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area. In 1973 the
Naughton plant of the Utah Power and Light Company in the Kemmerer field
consumed 2,500,000 tons of strip-mined coal. After expansion in the late
1970 f s the plant is expected to consume more than 5,000,000 tons of coal
per year (Rock Springs Daily Rocket-Miner, March 15, 1975). The first
unit of the Jim Bridger plant in the Rock Springs coal field, owned and
operated by the Idaho Power and Light Company and Pacific Power and Light
Company, went on line in August, 1974. When completed in the late 1970's
this plant is expected to consume 6,500,000 tons of strip-mined coal
per year. The Black Butte Coal Company strip mine, scheduled to open in
T. 17-19 N., R. 100-101 W. in the eastern part of the Rock Springs field,
is projected to produce more than 4,000,000 tons of coal per year after
1980. The Stansbury No. 1 underground mine in T. 20 N., R. 104 W., in
the western part of the Rock Springs coal field, which closed following
World War II, reopened in 1975; it is expected to ultimately produce
1,400,000 tons of coal per year.
17
Geological Investigations
The first detailed geologic study and exploration for coal in the
Sweetwater-Kemmerer area were by Veatch in 1905. In 1907 Veatch published
the results of these investigations as U.S. Geological Survey Professional
Paper 56. This comprehensive report has 26 plates and 9 figures that
illustrate the geography and geology of the Evanston coal field and the
southern part of the Kemmerer coal field in the Hams Fork Coal Region
(pi. 5). Coal-bearing outcrops along the eastern margin of the Hams
Fork Coal Region, north of the area covered by Veatch, were explored and
mapped a few years later by Schultz (1914).
The geology and coal resources of the Rock Springs coal field in
the Green River Coal Region (pi. 5) were mapped and evaluated by Schultz
in 1907 and 1908. Schultz divided the field into northern and southern
parts. The northern part was discussed .as a chapter in U.S. Geological
Survey Bulletin 341 (Schultz, 1909), and the southern part of the field
was discussed as a chapter in U.S. Geological Survey Bulletin 381 (Schultz,
1910). Schultz shows the location of coal outcrops on three planimetric
maps. The northern part of the field was mapped at the scale of 1:62,500,
and the southern part of the field was mapped at the scale of 1:250,000.
Coal outcrops for several miles in the vicinity of Rock Springs in the
southern part of the field were also mapped at the scale of 1:62,500.
The geology and coal resources of the Rock Springs coal field are
currently being reinvestigated by H. W. Roehler, who has mapped quadrangles
at the scale of 1:24,000 in the southeast part of the field. This work
has involved detailed stratigraphic correlations and computes coal
resources by section and township. The quadrangles investigated to date
include Titsworth Gap (1973b), Potter Mountain (1973a), Burley Draw (1974a),
Sand Butte Rim NW (1976a), Cooper Ridge (1976b), Mud Springs Ranch (1977a),
and Cartel Rock (unpub. mapping, 1977).
18
A canneloid lignite in the Wasatch Formation in the Frewen field
in T. 18-19 N., R. 94-95 W. was mapped by Bradley (1945). The origin
and stratigraphic relations of the lignite were later discussed by him
in a 1964 publication.
The thicknesses and stratigraphic positions of coal beds in the
Vermillion Creek field are shown on quadrangles mapped at the scale of
1:24,000 by Roehler. These include Scrivner Butte (1974b), Chicken Creek
SE (H. W. Roehler, unpub. mapping, 1977), and Chicken Creek SW (H. W. Roehler,
unpub. mapping, 1977).
Coal in the Rock Springs and Frontier Formations in the Henry's Fork
coal field was reported by Powell (1876), King (1878), Gale (1910), and
Hansen (1965). Little detailed information has been published concerning
coal in the field, but one bed in the Rock Springs Formation was mined
near Linwood in T. 12 N., R. 109 W.
Stratigraphy
Hams Fork Coal Region
Coal is present in the Hams Fork Coal Region in the western part
of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area in the Evanston, Adaville, Frontier, and
Bear River Formations (pis. 2,5),
Evanston Formation. The Evanston Formation has a variable thickness
because of unconformable relationships with underlying ;and overlying rocks.
It has a maximum thickness of 1,600 feet near the SE 1/4 sec. 13,
T. 16 N., R. 121 W. (Veatch, 1907, p. 80). The fossil mammal Phenacodus
sp. collected from the upper part and the dinosaur Triceratops sp.
collected from the lower part suggest that the Tertiary-Cretaceous time
boundary lies within the formation (Tracey and Oriel, 1959, p. 128).
The formation consists of yellow and brown sandstone, gray and black
carbonaceous shale, coal, and conglomerate. It was deposited in a
tectonically unstable area between a chain of mountains to the west in
the Utah and Idaho areas and a north-trending seaway in the area of eastern
Wyoming. The proximity of source areas to the west is indicated by the
large number and thickness of beds of light-colored conglomerate consisting
mainly of rounded quartzite boulders, derived from Mesozoic and Paleozoic
formations (Oriel and Tracey, 1970, p. 9). Interbedded with lenses of
19
conglomerate, which suggest rapid deposition by streams in well-drained
areas, are finer textured clastic rocks, carbonaceous shale, and coal,
which suggest long period's of floodplain, marsh, and swamp deposition
in poorly drained areas.
Subbituminous coal occurs in the Evanston Formation mostly in large
fault blocks north of Evanston, Wyo. It is present in an area of less
than 1 square mile in and adjacent to sec. 35, T. 17 N., R. 120 W.;
in a north-trending area about 6 miles long and 3 miles wide on the east
side of Bear River near Almy in T. 15-16 N. , R. 120 W.; and in an area
6 miles long and less than 1 mile wide that trends northeast from near
Evanston toward Medicine Butte in the northwest part of T. 15.N. , R. 120 W.
According to Veatch (1907, pi. 4) the Evanston Formation underlies most
of Fossil Syncline. Tracey and Oriel (1959, p. 128) have reported beds
of coal and lignite in the Evanston Formation on the east side of Fossil
Syncline for miles north and south of Hodges Pass, which is located in
SBC. 8, T. 21 N., R. 116 W.
Coal beds having thicknesses of as much as 28 feet are in the upper
few hundred feet of the Evanston Formation near Almy, Wyo. The
stratigraphic occurrence of the coal there was described by L. D.
Ricketts in 1890 (in Veatch, 1907, p. 133-134) as follows:
"There are in all at least five seams of coal, of which but one is clean enough to work. Two of them are said to be about 50 feet apart and the lower to be about 100 feet above the seam on which the mines are located. The upper is said to be 9 feet thick, the lower about 6 feet, the measurements including numerous bands of slate the seams contain. From 8 to 20 feet below the seam worked there is a small seam from 4 to 6 feet in thickness, and from 70 to 100 feet below it there is another seam from 8 to 12 feet thick. * * * The great seam from which the Almy coal is mined has been opened up and developed along the entire line of crop".
Figure 5 is a north-south section of the Almy bed in sec. 19, 30,
and 31, T. 16 N., R. 120 W. , and in sec. 5, 6, and 8, T. 15 N., R. 120 W.
20
Figure 5« Sections of the Almy coal bed in the Evans ton Formation near Almy, Wyoming. (From Veatch, 190?)
21
Two thin coal beds are present in a mine that was opened in the
Evanston Formation about 1900 in sec. 35, T. 17 N., R. 120 W. These
coal beds are about 1.7 and 2.5 feet thick, dirty, and inclined to
clinker (Veatch, 1907, p. 135).
Adaville Formation. The Adaville Formation varies in thickness from
a few hundred feet in local areas where it is eroded to 4,500 feet at
Mammoth Hollow in T. 25 N., R. 115 W. (Schultz, 1914, p. 66) and to as
much as 6,000 feet west of Kemmerer (Hunter, 1950, p. 131). It is
composed mostly of gray, yellow, and black-carbonaceous shale, coal,
and interbedded brown, yellow, and white sandstone. At the base of the
formation is the Lazeart Sandstone Member, a white cliff-forming unit
as much as 300 feet thick, that overlies the Billiard Shale.
The Adaville Formation was deposited mostly in swamps and on
floodplains along a north-trending coastal plain that covered most of
the western Wyoming area. The Lazeart Sandstone Member is a beach
sequence that marks a transition from marine deposition in the underlying
Billiard Shale to continental coastal plain deposition in overlying
parts of the Adaville Formation.
Bituminous coal is preserved in the Adaville Formation in the
T zeart Syncline within four structural depressions along the synclinal
axis. These depressions are in a small area in the north-center of
T. 13 N., R. 119 W.; in an area 12 miles long and 4 miles wide that
extends from the northwest part of T. 15 N., R. 118 W. northeastward to
the southwest part of T. 17 N., R. 117 W.; in an area about 28 miles long
and 8 miles wide that extends from the southern part of T. 19 N., R. 117 W,
northwest to the northern part of T. 22 N., R. 116 W.; and in an area
that includes the eastern part of T. 24 N., R. 116 W., the western part
of T. 25 N., R. 115 W., and the east-center of T. 25 N., R. 116 W.
22
Coal in the Adaville Formation has been mined extensively in the
Kemmerer field in T. 19-21 N., R. 116 W., where there are 11 coal
beds, numbered consecutively from bottom to top, in the lower 1,200 feet
of the formation (Glass, 1975, p. 56). The thickest coal is the Adaville
No. 1 bed that overlies the Lazeart Sandstone Member in the lower part
of the formation. In sec. 20, T. 21 N., R. 116 W. , the Adaville No. 1
bed is 88 feet thick. About 300 feet above the Adaville No. 1 bed in
the same area is the Adaville No. 3 coal bed, which is about 33 feet thick
(Glass, 1975, p. 91, 101). A geologic section of the Adaville Formation
showing the thickness of coals in the Kemmerer coal field in the vicinity
of Elkol is shown in Figure 6.
A. C. Peale has reported (Veatch, 1907, p. 131) the presence of
29 beds of coal, ranging in thickness from 1.5 to 48 feet and having an
aggregate thickness of 315 feet, in the Adaville Formation in the region
of Hodges Pass in sec. 8, T. 21 N., R. 116 W.
In addition to coal mined in the vicinity of Kemmerer in the Hams
Fork Region, a coal bed 5.5 to 6 feet thick has been mined at the Saley
mine on LaBarge Ridge in sec. 7, T. 26 N., R. 113 W. (Schultz, 1914, p. 98)
It has also been mined at the Lazeart mine in sec. 8, T. 15 N., R. 118 W.,
where it is 32 feet thick, and at the Carlton mine in sec. 4, T. 13 N.,
T?, 119 W., where it is 22 feet thick (Veatch, 1907, p. 132).
Frontier Formation. The Frontier Formation in the Hams Fork Coal
Region ranges in thickness from 1,800 to 3,800 feet. It is exposed on
the flanks of the Lazeart Syncline in the eastern part of the Overthrust
Belt. The formation is composed mainly of gray sandstone and interbedded
gray shale, mudstone, siltstone, gray and brown carbonaceous shale, and
minor thin beds of gray bentonite, and limestone. The Oyster Ridge
Sandstone Member, a 100- to 200-foot-thick unit containing oyster shells,
is situated in the upper part of the formation. The stratigraphic
succession and fossils in the formation at Cumberland Gap in sec. 31 and
32, T. 19 N., R. 116 W. were described in detail by Cobban and Reeside
(1952, p. 1922).
23
\»000
1000
1000
Figu
re 6. Geo
logi
c section
of t
he Adaville F
ormation i
n th
e vicinity of
the El
kol
Mine,
Kemmerer co
al fi
eld,
in T
. 20
N., R. 117
Wo
Vertical
scale
1 in
ch e
quals
300
feet
. (From
Hunter,
1950)
The Frontier Formation was deposited along the western shores of
a shallow Cretaceous sea. It is composed of a mixture of sediments
deposited in marine, littoral, floodplain, and swamp environments.
Cross-sections showing regional stratigraphic relations and depositional
environments were published by Hale (1960, p. 143, 145), who believed
the funnation was deposited during two major transgressions and
regressions of the sea across the Overthrust Belt area. The fluctuations
in sea level were in response to contemporaneous orogenic uplifts to
the west. Coal beds in the upper and lower parts of the formation were
deposited in coastal swamps during periods when the sea had retreated to
points east of the Overthrust Belt area. The Oyster Ridge Sandstone
Member is a littoral deposit marking the last retreat of the sea from
the area.
Beds of subbituminous coal in the Frontier Formation are mostly
in the lower one-third to one-half of the formation, but a few beds are
also in the upper part. The beds in the Kemmerer field were mined for
20 miles along Oyster Ridge from sec. 1, T. 22 N., R. 116 W. southward
through Frontier, Diamondville, and Glencoe, to Cumberland Gap in
sec. 31, T. 19 N., R. 116 W. The coal beds worked above the Oyster
Ridge Sandstone Member on Oyster Ridge are placed in the Upper Kemmerer
^uup by Hunter (1950, fig. 2). Those worked below the Oyster Ridge
Sandstone, in descending order, are the Willow Creek bed, the Spring
Valley series, and the League of Nations bed. The thickness and
distribution of coal beds in the Kemmerer coal field are shown on a
map of the field, Figure 7, and on two cross-sections through Oyster
Ridge, Figure 8.
The Spring Valley coal bed was mined at the Richardson mine in
sec. 12, T. 15 N., R. 118 W., where the bed is 5 feet thick (Veatch, 1907,
p. 136-137). Another small mine was opened in a 6-foot-thick unnamed
coal bed in the formation in sec. 33, T. 34 N., R. 115 W. (Schultz, 1914,
p. 96).
25
RII?W RII6W
Figure 7. Map of the Keminerer coal field showing thelocations of coal beds and mine adits. (From Hunter, 1950)
26
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(From
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er,'
1950
)
Bear River Formation. The Bear River Formation is more than 5,000
feet thick in the western part of the Overthrust Belt in T. 22 N., R. 119 W.,
but it thins eastward and southward across the Overthrust Belt to less than
500 feet thick in T. 13 N., R. 119 W. (Veatch, 1907, p. 63). Stratigraphic
equivalents of the Bear River Formation east of the Overthrust Belt in the
Sweetwater-Kemmerer area include the Dakota Formation and the upper part
of the Morrison Formation. The Bear River Formation is composed of gray,
buff and brown sandstone, and interbedded gray limestone, shale, carbonaceous
shale, and sparse beds of coal. The sediments were deposited in mixed
fluvial, swamp, and marine environments. The dominantly shallow fresh
water origin of the formation has been discussed by Veatch (1907, p. 114)
and Schultz (1914, p. 54-59).
Coal beds of minable thickness (as defined in this report, at least
2.5 feet thick and under less than 3,000 feet of overburden) are present
in outcrops of the Bear River Formation at only a few places between
T. 21 N., R. 119-120 W. and T. 28 N., R. 118-119 W. (pi. 5).
The coal is bituminous and picked samples have coking properties.
Beds 3-6 feet thick were mined near Sage, Wyo. in sec. 7, T. 21 N.,
R. 119 W., between 1875 and 1900, and several unsuccessful attempts were
made there to develop a coke industry (Veatch, 1907, p. 114). The coal
deposits in the Bear River field are generally thin, dirty, and lenticular,
and have doubtful economic value. However, the deposits are common
£ -ih to suggest that thicker deposits of commercial value will eventually
be iound.
Green River Coal Region
Coal is present in the Green River Coal Region (pi. 5) in the
eastern part of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area in the Wasatch, Fort Union,
Lance, Almond, and Rock Springs Formations.
28
Wasatch Formation. The Wasatch Formation ranges in thickness from
1,500 to 5,000 feet. The formation is divided into a basal member, the
main body, and two overlying tongues, the Niland and Cathedral Bluffs,
that are separated from the main body by tongues of the Green River
Formation. The rocks of the Wasatch Formation are extremely variable, but
they are mostly gray sandstone and siltstone, with interbedded gray, green,
and red mudstone, gray and brown, partly carbonaceous shale, coal, and
sparse thin beds of gray limestone and brown oil shale. The main body and
the Niland Tongue contain coal beds.
The main body and the Niland Tongue of the Wasatch Formation were
deposited in fresh-water swamps in an intermontane basin. The swamps
occupied topographic depressions that trended east, north of the Uinta
Mountains, and then northeast from near the southern tip of the Rock
Springs uplift across the central part of the Washakie Basin. Coal beds
in the Niland Tongue were deposited in swamps in this topographic
depression during drying-up periods of Lake Gosiute, a lake that covered
nearly all of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area during much of Eocene time.
The coals in the main body of the formation were deposited shortly before
the onset of lacustrine deposition in Lake Gosiute. The coal in the
Wasatch is subbituminous A to lignite and consistently has 4 to 9 percent
sulfur. The environmental factors responsible for the high sulfur content
are unknown.
Lignite is found in the Niland Tongue at the Frewen and Vermillion
Creek coal fields (pi. 5). The Niland Tongue in the Frewen field is
about 100 feet thick and is composed of soft brown oil shale, gray
sandstone, brown carbonaceous shale, and a single bed of canneloid
lignite. The lignite is 6 feet thick where it was mined in T. 19 N.,
R. 94 W. , but it thins laterally and can be traced for only a few miles
along outcrops. The lignite is unusual in that joints along bedding
planes contain the rare sulfate minerals tschermigite, ammoniojarosite,
and melanterite (Bradley, 1964, p. A24).
29
The Niland Tongue at the Vennillion Creek coal field is between
200 and 425 feet thick and is composed of gray sandstone and siltstone,
gray and brown carbanaceous shale, brown oil shale, and a few beds of
coal. Beds of subbituminous coal are present locally in the upper
two-thirds of the tongue. Although the beds are lenticular, several
are of minable thickness. Two beds between 2.5 and 5 feet thick are
present in west-trending outcrops from sec. 12, T. 13 N., R. 102 W. to
sec. 14, T. 13 N., R. 103 W. (Roehler, 1974b). A bed 5-9 feet thick,
located 50-75 feet below the top of the tongue is at shallow depths
in sec. 32-35, T. 13 N., R. 100 W., where it is potentially recoverable
by surface mining (Roehler, 1977b). A bed 3.8 feet thick was encountered
at 776 feet in the U.S. Bureau of Mines, Washakie Basin Corehole No. 1A,
in sec. 24, T. 14 N., R. 100 W. (Trudell and others, 1973, p. 10). None
of the beds in the Vennillion Creek field is being worked at the present
time, but small mines were operated intermittently between 1900 and
1935 and supplied winter fuel for local ranches. One bed, 3.1 feet thick,
was mined at the Canyon Creek Mine in sec. 17, T. 12 N., R. 101 W.
(Roehler, 1974b).
The main body of the Wasatch Formation is 2,000-3,000 feet thick
in the Vermillion Creek coal field. It is composed mostly of gray,
green, and red mudstone and gray sandstone, except for the upper few
hundred feet which has carbonaceous shale and subbituminous coal. Little
is known of the coal in the subsurface, but at least one bed about 20
feet thick has been penetrated in gas wells drilled on Hiawatha Dome in
T. 12 N., R. 100 W. A bed 2.4 feet thick was encountered at 1,163 feet
in the U.S. Bureau of Mines, Washakie Basin Corehole No. 1A, in Sec. 24,
T. 14 N., R. 100 W. (Trudell and others, 1973, p. 10). Outcrops of the
upper 100 feet of the main body expose coal beds in a few places. A bed
2.8 feet thick is present in a small area on the upthrown side of a
fault in sec. 19, T. 13 N., R. 99 W., at Pioneer Gas Field, and a bed
6.6 feet thick crops out in sec. 22, T. 12 N., R. 100 W. on the west
slopes of Vermillion Creek at Hiawatha Dome.
30
Fort Union Formation. The Fort Union Formation is about 3,000 feet
thick in the subsurface in basins adjacent to the Rock Springs uplift, but
it thins to between 1,000 and 1,500 feet thick in outcrops on the flanks
of the uplift. The thinning is partly by intraformational erosion and
partly by intervals of nondeposition across the crest of the uplift. The
surfaces of erosion are easily identified in outcrops by distinctive
fossil soils composed of light-gray weathering limy, siliceous siltstone
containing root impressions. The dominant rock types of the formation are
gray lenticular sandstone and siltstone and interbedded gray shale,
gray and brown carbonaceous shale, and coal, but locally the formation has
beds of green or variegated mudstone.
Coal beds in the Fort Union Formation were deposited in fresh-water
swamps situated in low topographic areas of an intermontane basin during
the early Tertiary Period. The great thickness and large areal extent
of some of the coal beds attest to the size and longevity of some of
the swamps.
The Rock Springs uplift is encircled by beds of subbituminous
coal in the Fort Union Formation. The uppermost coal beds in the
formation, at subsurface depths of 3,000 feet, define the outer limits
of the Rock Springs coal field as illustrated on plate 5. Minable coals
in the formation include the Deadman, Hail, Nuttal (Big Burn), and Leaf
beds on the east flank and several unnamed beds on the west flank of the
uplift. The Deadman bed, located in the lower 100 feet of the formation,
is the thickest outcropping coal bed. It is 30 feet thick in a strip
mine in T. 21 N., R. 100 W. that provides the fuel for the nearby Jim
Bridger Power plant. The Nuttal (Big Burn) coal bed crops out for
more than 20 miles on the east flank of the uplift, from T. 16 N.,
R. 102 W. at the south, northward to T. 18 N., R. 99-100 W.; in sec. 33,
*', 18 N., R. 100 W. it is 9 feet thick. The Leaf and Hail beds thicken
eiratically from less than 2.5 to slightly more than 5 feet in outcrops
on the southeast flank of the uplift. On the west flank of the uplift
a 7.5-foot-thick unnamed bed is situated 400 feet above the base of the
31
formation and a 2.8-foot-thick unnamed bed is situated 625 feet above the
base of the formation near the city of Rock Springs (fig. 9). Another
very thick unnamed bed is present on the northwest flank of the uplift
northwest of Rock Springs. This bed is only 4.5 feet thick and is
700 feet above the base of the formation in outcrops in sec. 32, T. 21 N.,
R. 104 W. (pi. 2), but it thickens rapidly westward, downdip, in the
subsurface. In three exploratory oil and gas test holes drilled by the
British-American Oil Producing Company, the bed is 16 feet thick at
1,600 feet in sec. 5, T. 22 N., R. 104 W., 20 feet thick at 2,750 feet
in sec. 1, T. 22 N., R. 105 W., and 20 feet thick at 4,100 feet in sec.
33, T. 21 N., R. 105 W. Basinward the bed is more than 35 feet thick
at depths below 3,000 feet in several other oil and gas test holes
drilled in the Green River Basin off the northwest flank of the uplift.
Lance Formation. The Lance Formation ranges in thickness from 0
to about 725 feet on the east flank of the Rock Springs uplift. The
formation is exposed as a crescent-shaped belt of outcrops 35 miles long
and as much as 6 miles wide that wedges out to the south in T. 17 N.,
R. 101 W. and to the north in T. 22 N., R. 102 W. (pi. 2). The dominant
rock types are gray sandstone and siltstone and interbedded gray shale,
gray and brown carbonaceous shale, and coal.
The Lance Formation was deposited on the landward side of shorelines
of the Late Cretaceous Lewis sea while the sea was retreating from west
to east across the area of the Rock Springs uplift. Coal beds in the
formation are commonly interbedded with sandstone and shale that contain
oyster shells and other brackish-water mollusks. This association suggests
chat the coals were deposited in swampy lagoons that formed behind
barrier bars of sand.
Beds of subbituminous coal in the Lance Formation are lenticular.
They frequently split or are channeled out, and they are difficult to
correlate. The coal beds in the vicinity of Black Butte in the
northwest part of T. 18 N. , R. 100 W. are named in descending order the
Overland, Gibralter, Black Butte, Maxwell, and Hall beds (fig. 9). The
Hall, Maxwell, and Gibralter are the most persistent of these beds in
outcrops.
32
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Figure 9.
Cor
rela
tion
s of
coal-producing
formations in the
Rock Springs
uplift.
The Hall bed at the base of the Lance Formation is about 8 feet
thick in sec. 4, T. 18 N., R. 100 W. at Black Butte. It thins irregularly
and splits in places along outcrops south of Black Butte, but is 6 feet
thick in sec. 22, T. 17 N., R. 101 W., where it wedges out below the Fort
Union Formation. North of Black Butte the Hall bed is 9.8 feet thick
in sec. 29, T. 19 N., R. 100 W., and 4.9 feet thick in sec. 15, T. 21 N.,
R. 101 W.
The Maxwell bed, situated 75 feet above the base of the Lance
Formation, varies in thickness from 2.5 to nearly 6 feet between Black
Butte in sec. 6, T. 18 N., R. 100 W. and sec. 15, T. 21 N., R. 101 W.,
15 miles to the north. The bed thins irregularly in outcrops south of
Black Butte, but is 4.7 feet thick in sec. 22, T. 17 N., R. 101 W. where
it wedges out below the Fort Union Formation.
The Gibralter bed, situated about 175 feet above the base of the
Lance Formation, is 6.7 feet thick at the abandoned Gibralter mine in
sec. 20, T. 18 N., R. 100 W. In outcrops north of the Gibralter mine it
is 3.5 to 9 feet thick to near the northern boundary of T. 21 N., R.101 W.
It wedges out and is missing in outcrops 2 miles southwest of the
Gibralter mine in sec. 20, T. 18 N., R. 100 W.
Almond Formation. The Almond Formation has an average thickness
of 725 feet on the east flank of the Rock Springs uplift. It thinsj
irregularly and is missing by Late Cretaceous-Tertiary erosion in places
on the west flank of the uplift. It is 590 feet thick at the northern
tip -JL the uplift in T. 23 N., R. 103 W. Southward, along the northwest
fl-r.k, it is 855 feet thick in sec. 26, T. 22 N., R. 104 W., 625 feet thick
in »ec. 32-33, T. 21 N., R. 104 W., and 205 feet thick in sec. 10, T. 18 N.,
R. 105 W. The formation is missing in outcrops for more than 4 miles in
sec. 21, 28, and 33, T. 18 N., R. 105 W., and sec. 4 and 9, T. 17 N.,
V. 105 W., on part of the southwest flank. It is 105 feet thick in
sec. 21, T. 17 N., R. 105 W., but is again missing by erosion for several
miles in T. 15-16 N., R. 104-105 W. It is 665 feet thick near the
southern tip of the uplift in sec. 18, 19, and 30, T. 14 N., R. 103 W.
The formation is composed of gray sandstone and interbedded gray shale,
gray and brown carbonaceous shale, coal, and minor thin beds of gray
siltstone and dolomite.
34
The Almond Formation was deposited in coastal swamps, in lagoons,
and along shorelines during westward transgressions of the Lewis sea in
Late Cretaceous time (Roehler, 1976a, 1976b). The lower 100-250 feet
of the formation, which is generally not coal bearing, was deposited in
coastal swamps. The middle 200- to 350-foot-thick coal-bearing part of
the formation was deposited in swampy lagoons that developed west of
north-trending barrier bars. The evidence for lagoonal origins for the
coals are (1) the intertonguing and juxtaposition of the coal beds with
barrier bars, and, (2) the presence of fossil oyster beds within coal-
bearing sequences (Roehler, 1976a). The sediments in the upper 250 to
350 feet of the formation were deposited as barrier bars and in shallow
seas.
Beds of subbituminous coal of minable thickness are present in the
Almond Formation in the interval from 150 to 500 feet above the base
of the formation on the east and northwest flanks of the Rock Springs
uplift. A few beds of minable thickness are also present in the
interval from 500 feet above the base to the top of the formation in
the southern and southeastern parts of the uplift. Approximately 20
coal beds have been named and mapped, mostly by Roehler (1976a, 1976b)
the southeast part of the field. The coal beds named there in descending
order are the Falcon, Goldeneye, Teal, Waxwing, Pintail, Finch, Gull,
Sparrow, Coot, Buzzard, Shrike, Eagle, Mallard, Robin, Meadow Lark,
Magpie, Mourning Dove, and Starling beds. The thickest beds in
outcrops are the Gull bed^ 12.2 feet thick, situated 400 feet above the
base of the formation in sec. 19, T. 14 N., R. 103 W.; the Mallard
bed, 10.2 feet thick, 360 feet above the base in sec. 15, T. 16 N.,
R. 102 W.; the Robin bed, 15.8 feet thick, 340 feet above the base in
sec. 10, T. 16 N., R. 102 W.; the Magpie bed, 11.6 to 12.0 feet thick,
330 feet above the base in sec. 33-34, T. 18 N., R. 101 W. and sec.
3-4, T. 17 N., R. 101 W.; the Mourning Dove bed, 16.6 feet thick, 325
feet above the base in sec. 32-33, T. 16 N., R. 102 W.; and the
Starling bed, 11.6 feet thick, 175 feet above the base in sec. 21,
T. 16 N., R. 102 W.
35
The Lebar bed, recently named by the Black Butte Coal Company, is
7.7 to 8.7 feet thick in outcrops near Black Butte in T. 18-19 N.,
R. 100-101 W. (fig. 9). At Point of Rocks in sec. 27, T. 20 N., R.
101 W., the Lebar bed is 6.2 feet thick. A 4.8- to 5.0-foot-thick bed
15-20 feet above the Lebar bed in the vicinity of Black Butte has been
designated the Lebar rider.
The Wyoming bed is 5.7 feet thick and is situated 100 feet above
the base of the formation. It was mined near Point of Rocks in sec. 27,
T. 20 N., R. 101 W. (fig. 9).
Coal beds in the Almond Formation have not beed adequately mapped
in the northern part of the Rock Springs uplift. For that reason a
number of minable beds there remain unnamed and uncorrelated. On the
northeast flank of the uplift four unnamed beds have an aggregate
thickness of 15.2 feet along Potash Wash in the southern part of T. 21 N.,
R. 101 W. On the northwest flank of the uplift three coal beds have an
aggregate thickness of 10.5 feet on the north slopes of Pine Canyon in
sec. 6, T. 22 N., R. 104 W., five beds have an aggregate thickness of
27.1 feet in sec. 26, T. 22 N., R. 104 W., and four beds west of
Winton in sec. 32-33, T. 21 N., R. 104 W. have an aggregate thickness
of 21.3 feet.
Rock Springs Formation. The Rock Springs Formation is nearly 2,000
feet thick in the northwest part of the Rock Springs uplift, but it
thins to less than 1,000 feet in the southeast part of the uplift. The
thinning is due partly to erosion on the top of the formation and partly
to a facies change of continental to marine rocks in a southeast direction.
The erosion on the top of the formation reflects the paleogeographical
location of the Rock Springs uplift area on the eroded east flank of the
Church Buttes-Moxa arch, a fold that developed prior to the structural
expression of uplift (pi. 4). The Rock Springs Formation ife composed
of gray sandstone and siltstone, and interbedded gray shale, gray and
brown carbonaceous shale, and coal in the northwest one-half of the
Rock Springs uplift, where the formation was deposited mostly in coastal
36
swamps. Rocks deposited in coastal swamps are replaced southeastward
by gray beach and shoreline sandstone and farther southeastward by dark-
gray marine shale. Coal beds in the formation are restricted to the
areas of coastal swamp deposition in the northwest part of the uplift
(fig. 9).
Coal beds in the Rock Springs Formation in the Rock Springs coal
field have been given local names and numbers, but a number system
adopted by the Union Pacific Railroad is most commonly used (Schultz,
1908, p. 253-256). The beds worked in the field are numbered, in
descending order, 5, 3, 1, 7 1/2, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and 19. At Rock
Springs the lowest bed is named Van Dyke (fig. 9). The same nomenclature
is used across the field, although recent stratigraphic investigations
suggest that the beds commonly have been miscorrelated.
Minable beds of bituminous coal occur in the Rock Springs Formation
in an irregularly semicircular belt of outcrops 6-10 miles wide from
T. 16 N., R. 105 W. , on the west flank of the uplift, northward through
Rock Springs, Reliance, and Winton to Long Canyon and Cedar Canyon, and
then southeastward on the northeastern flank of the uplift through
Superior to the vicinity of Point of Rocks in T. 20 N. , R. 101 W. The
minable beds are widely spaced in an interval hundreds of feet thick
from about 200 feet above the base to about 50 feet below the top of
the formation. The mined coal beds are generally 6-8 feet thick, but
coal 14 feet thick has been mined at Stansbury (Yourston, 1955, p. 202).
The number of coal beds (in parentheses) and the aggregate thickness of
minable coal are (12) 49 feet at Rock Springs, (14) 67 feet at
Winton, and (18) 96 feet at Superior.
Coal beds outcrop in the Rock Springs Formation in the Henrys Fork
coal field in T. 12 N. , R. 108-110 W. W. C. Culbertson (oral comm.,
1976) has mapped the field in Wyoming and reports that the Rock
Springs Formation there is about 1,250 feet thick. It is composed of
gray sandstone and shale with interbedded gray and brown carbonaceous
shale and coal. A 5-foot-thick bed of coal, situated 370 feet below the
37
top of the formation, was mined at two places in the early 1900's near
Wyoming Highway 530, a short distance north of the Wyoming-Utah
Stateline. One of the mine workings is now partly obliterated by the
bed of a highway that was constructed in the early 1960 f s from Highway
530 to the Lucerne Valley campground on Flaming Gorge Reservoir. Coal
in this mine was afire and the roof caved in 1950; apparently the coal
had been burning for more than 40 years (Hansen, 1965, p. 100).
Structure
Little is known of the detailed structural relationships of coal-
bearing sequences in the Evanston and Bear River Formations in the Hams
Fork Coal Region. Veatch (1907, p. 114, 133) reported that coal beds
in the Evanston Formation near Almy dip from 5 to 13 degrees east, and
that those in the Bear River Formation near Sage dip 35 to 45 degrees
west. Coal beds in the Adaville and Frontier Formations in the Kemmerer
coal field dip 16 to 25 degrees west. Primary joint orientations in the
Adaville Formation at the Kemmerer field are N. 65° E. and N. 20 W.
(Glass, 1975, p. 58-102). No major faults were mapped in coal fields
in the Hams Fork Coal Region by Veatch (1907, pi. 23). A few faults
have subsequently been mapped, however, such as the Quealy fault, which
trends southwest near the common corner of T. 21-22 N., R. 115-116 W.
in the Kemmerer field (fig. 7).
Coal beds in the Henrys Fork coal field in the Green River Coal
Region are unfaulted but dip 60 to 65 degrees north. A bed of
canneloid lignite at the Frewen field is unfaulted and dips 3 to 4
degrees southeast. In the Vermillion Creek field coal beds dip 1 to
4 degrees on the flanks of minor folds; the beds are locally cut by
high-angle normal faults.
The coal beds worked in the Rock Springs coal field are cut at
many places by northeast-trending high-angle normal and reverse faults
having displacements generally less than 200 feet (pi. 2). Faults in
the vicinity of Rock Springs are shown on a map published by Schultz
(1910, pi. 15). Faults in the northeastern part of the Rock Springs
coal field in the vicinity of Superior are shown on an unpublished
geologic map prepared on a planimetric base at the scale of 1:24,000 by
C. E. Dobbin in 1941. Dips along the eastern part of the Rock Springs
coal field are consistently between 3 and 6 degrees east; those along
the western part of the field are mostly between 6 and 32 degrees west.
The orientation of primary joints is about N. 75 E. and N. 30 W. in
areas where coal has been mined in the northern part of the Rock Springs
field (fig. 10).
Coal quality and composition
Coal beds in southwestern Wyoming contain appreciable coal resources
in nine different formations ranging in age from Late Cretaceous to
Eocene. The coal generally ranks from subbituminous C to high volatile
B bituminous, though there are a few thin beds of lignite in the Wasatch
Formation. In general, the older Rock Springs and Frontier Formations
contain bituminous coal, and the younger Almond, Lance, Evanston, and
Fort Union Formations contain subbituminous coal. The heat values of
these coals, on an as-received basis, range from 8,000 Btu per pound
for the lower grades of subbituminous coal, to 12,250 Btu per pound for
the better grades of bituminous coal. No large resources of naturally
occuring coking coal (medium- and low-volatile bituminous coal) have
been identified in southwestern Wyoming.
Most of the coal has a low- to medium-ash content and is classified
as low-sulfur coal; it contains 5 to 10 percent ash and 0.5 to 1.0 percent
sulfur. The butiminous coal in the Rock Springs Formation has a
slightly higher sulfur content averaging 0.8 to 1.2 percent, and some
samples may contain as much as 3.5 percent.
Proximate and/or ultimate analyses of about 130 samples of coal from
mines in southwestern Wyoming are listed by Fieldner, Cooper, and Osgood
(1931, p. 35-77). Most of these samples were collected and analyzed
before 1913. Recent representative analyses of coal from southwestern
Wyoming are recorded in tables 1-6. The data are generally representative
of coal in the different geologic units and areas. Table 1 is an
analysis of a high volatile C bituminous coal from the Rock Springs
Formation of Late Cretaceous age near Rock Springs. Tables 2 and 3
39
OUTCROP OF ALMOMD
SPRINGS
MlUES
Figure 10. Map of the Rock Springs coal field showing the dip of strata and the orientation of primary joints.
40
Table 1. Analysis of bituminous coal sample from the Rock Springs Formation of Late Cretaceous age, from Rainbow No. 8 Mine near Rock Springs Wyo.
[Data from Glass, 1975, sample no. 74-22. Proximate and ultimate analysis on as-received basis; sample ashed at 525° C; L indicates less than value shown.]
Proximate and ultimate analysis (percent)
MoistureVol MatterFixed CAshCarbonHydrogen Nitrogen Oxygen Sulfur
SulfatePyritic Organic
Btu/lb
10.438.146.15.4
66.15.8 1.6
20.2 .9.04.40 .49
11,720
Major and minor oxides in ash (percent)
Trace elements in whole coal (ppm)
As 2F 100Hg .08Sb 1.1Se 1.2Th 2.0 LU 1.5
sio2
A1203
CaO
MgO
Na£0
K 02
51.
25.
4.8
.73
.22
1.20
Fe203
MnO
Ti02
P2°5
so3
Trace elements
BBaBeCdCoCrCuGaLiMo
in ash
2,0002,000
152.0
15708230
20610
(ppm)
NbNiPbScSrVYYbZnZr
11.
.02L
.86
1.70
1.8
20307030
,000150707
84300
41
Table 2. Composition of coal in the Adaville Formation, Lincoln County, Wyo., based on standard coal analyses of 19 samples, reported in percent on as-received basis (modified from Glass, 1975). Analyses by Coal Analysis Section, U.S. Bureau of Mines, Pittsburgh, Pa.
Average Range (arithmetic mean)
MoistureVol. matterFixed CAshHydrogenCarbonNitrogenOxygenSulfur
20.334.140.74.96.1
55.41.3
31.6.7
15.4-27.531.1-37.133.5-44.73.2- 8.95.9- 6.4
48.8-60.1.8- 1.5
27.5-39.4.3- 1.8
Btu/lb 9,600 7,920-10,530
Sulfate S 0.04 0.00- .28Pyritic S .31 .03-1.25Organic S .33 .14-1.11
42
Table 3 . Average (arithmetic mean) composition and observed range of 10 major and minor oxides and 20 trace elements in coal ash, and contents of seven additional trace elements in 1A coal samples from the Adaville Formation, Lincoln County, Wyo. (moditied from Glass, 1975)
IA11 samples were ashed at 525°C; L after a value means less than the valueshown]
Major and Minor Oxides in Ash (percent)
Oxide
Ash
SVA1203
CaO
MgO
Na20
VFe203
MnO
T102
P2°5
so3
Element
BBaBeCdCoCrCuGaLiMoNbNiPbScSrVYYbZnZr
Average(arithmetic
mean)
6. A
53.
12.
5.7
2.95
.12
.58
9.5
.11
.50
.22
8. A
Trace Elements
Average(arithmeticmean)
1,5002,000
101.1
15503930385L
105025L10
700100302
117150
-
Observed rangeMinimum
4. A
38.
A. 3
3.8
1.20
.08
.14
3.2
.02L
.2A
.10L
1.3
in Ash (ppm)
ObservedMinimum
5001,000
2l.OL7L203020275L10L2025L7
20050202
AO50
Maximum
11.6
70.
19.
8.6
5.15
.19
1.30
26.
.55
.67
.50
15. .
RangeMaximum
2,0005,000
ao2.0
302005270561020
1003030
2,000150705
27A200
A3
Table 3. Average (arithmetic mean) composition and observed range of 10 major and minor oxides and 20 trace elements in coal ash, and contents of seven additional trace elements in 14 coal samples from the Adaville Formation, Lincoln County, Wyo. (modified from Glass, 1975). Continued
Trace Elements in Whole Coal (ppm)
Element
Average (arithmetic
mean)Observed range
Minimum Maximum
AsFHgSbSeThU
l.OL 55.
.05
.2
.42.0L .3
l.OL25
.02
.1L
.1L 2.0L .2L
2. 95.
.13
.5 1.0 3.0 1.0
44
Table 4. Composition of coal in the Deadman bed (local usage), Jim Bridger Mine, Sweetwater County, Wyo., based on standard coal analysis of five composite samples reported in percent on as-received basis. Analyses by Coal Analysis Section, U.S. Bureau of Mines, Pittsburg, Pa.
Average (arithmetic mean) Range
MoistureVol. matterFixed CAshHydrogenCarbonNitrogenOxygenSulfur
19.232.940.47.55.4
52.81.2
32.6.5
16.5-21.929.9-34.937.8-45.24.9-12.05.3- 5.7
50.0-57.61.1- 1.6
27.8-35.2.4- .6
Btu/lb 8,740 8,070-9,570
Sulfate S 0.13 0.07-.18Pyritic S .10 .03-.18Organic S .31 .22-.38
45
Table 5. Average (arithmetic mean) composition and observed range of 10 major and minor oxides and 20 trace elements in coal ash, and contents of seven additional trace elements in 12 coal samples. Deadman bed, Jim Bridger Mine, Sveetvater County, Wyo.
[All samples were ashed at 525°; L after a value means less than thevalue shewn]
Oxide
Ash
Si02
A12°3
CaO
MgO
Na 0
VFe 0 C2 3
MnO
T102
P2°5
so3
Element
BBaBeCdCoCrCuGaLaLiMoKbHiPbScSrVYYbZnZr
Major and Minor
Average(arithmetic
mean)
8.3
46.
23.
7.0
1.88
.21
.45
6.0
.028
.72
.20
11.
Average(arithmetic
mean)
1,5005,000
3l.OL
1570
1373070
1491010L304015
1,000100203
72200
Oxides in Ash (percent)
Observed rangeMinimum
5.5
35.
14.
2.9
1.08
.09
.053
2.2
- .020L
.39
.10L
6.7
Observed rangeMinimum
1,0003,000
3Ll.OL
1070961570967
10L1525L10
30070202
36100
Maximum
14.8
57.
32.
12.
2.82
.42
1.5
12.
.094
1.0
.81
17.
Maximum
2,0007,000
53.0
2070
30250
1002162010L506530
1,500150303
242300
46
Table 5. Average (arithmetic mean) composition and observed range of 10 major and minor oxides and 20 trace elements in coal ash, and contents of seven additional trace elements in 12 coal samples, Deadman bed, Jim Bridger Mine. Sveetvater County, Wyo. Continued
Trace Elements in Whole Coal (ppm)
Average (arithmetic ______Observed range________
Element________mean)___________ Minimum______________Maximum
As 3 l.OL 15F 45 30 90Hg .15 .04 .69Sb .4 .2 .8Se 2.0 1.1 . 3.5Th 3.7 2.0 7.2U 1.2 ,2L 2.3
47
Table 6. Average (arithmetic mean) composition and observed range of 10 major and minor oxides and 20 trace elements in coal ash, and contents of seven additional trace elements in 295 Rocky Mountain province coal samples
[All samples were ashed at 525°C; L after a value means less than the valueshown]
Major and Minor Oxides in Ash (percent)
Oxide
AshSi02
A12°3
CaOMgO
2Fe2°3
MnOTi02
so3
Average (arithmetic
mean)
13.346
21
8.91.63 1.39
.65
7.6
.049
.89
8.4
Observed range
Minimum
1.815
4.3
.21
.22
.08
.05
1.1
.004
.02 L
.10 L
Maximum
88.279
35
357.1 8.6
3.0
26
.551.8
29
Trace Elements in Ash (ppm)
Element
BBaBeCdCoCrCuGaLiMoNbNiPbScSrVYYbZnZr
Average (arithmetic
mean)
5002,000
5.7
1530873088157
204515
700100505
77200
Observed range
Minimum
7070
.1L
.5L10 L10221010 L5 L
20 L10 L20 L7
15050202
1350
Maximum
3,00010,000
154.0
50150
1,26050
328705070
19530
3,00030015015
1,820500
48
Table 6. Average (arithmetic mean) composition and observed range of 10 major and minor oxides and 20 trace elements in coal ash, and contents of seven additional trace elements in 295 Rocky Mountain province coal samples. Continued
Trace Elements in Whole Coal (ppm)
(arithmetic Observed range
Element mean) Minimum Maximum
AsFHgSbSeThU
295
.08
.41.64.21.9
1 L20 L
.01
.05L
.1 L1.7
.1
50920
1.485.25.7
34.823.8
49
summarize analyses of the subbituminous B coal from the Adaville Formation
of Late Cretaceous age near Kemmerer (See table 2, Swanson, 1972, for
similar data on five coal samples from the Adaville Formation). Tables
4 and 5 summarize analyses of the subbituminous B and C coal from the
Fort Union Formation of Tertiary (Paleocene) age about 30 miles east-
northeast of Rock Springs.
Table 6 gives the average composition and range of values for the
major and minor oxides and 27 trace elements in 295 Rocky Mountain
province coal samples, which provides a basis for comparison of
similar data on southwestern Wyoming coal. The most notable differences
between southwestern Wyoming coal and the average Rocky Mountain coal
are: southwestern Wyoming coal contains 6 to 10 times less Na«0 slightly
less CaO, about 3 times more B, and 2-5 times more Be in the ash of the
coal. Coal from the Adaville and Fort Union Formations in southwestern
Wyoming contains about one-half the amount of F as the average Rocky
Mountain coal.
Detailed chemical data are not available for the coal in the Upper
Cretaceous Bear River, Frontier, and Evanston Formations in Lincoln and
Uinta Counties. Such data are available, however, on some 75 coal samples
that were collected from outcrops of the Upper Cretaceous Almond and
Lance Formations, and the Tertiary Fort Union and Wasatch Formations in
Sweetwater County (H. W. Roehler, unpub. data, 1976). From all of
the geologic and geochemical data available, it can be concluded that,
except for local variations in a particular bed or differences between
single samples, only the general differences in coal composition cited
above will prove to be significant. None of the analyzed coal samples
from southwestern Wyoming showed evidence of mineralization or high
metal contents that would indicate potentially economic byproduct
materials in the coal, or that would produce abnormally high levels of
pollutants during utilization of the coal.
50
Resources
More than 3,100 square miles of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area is
underlain by minable coal deposits (pi. 5). Total identified original
resources , in all categories, are 20,853,000,000 short tons, based largely
on extrapolation of information from surface mapping. This amount is believed
a conservative estimate. Published data on coal resources are listed on
Table 7.
Original resources of the Kemmerer field are 2,284,000,000 tons of
bituminous coal and 1,362,000,000 tons of subbituminous coal. As of
1960, 62,370,000 tons of coal had been produced, which is less than 2
percent of the total identified resources of the field (Townsend, 1960,
p. 251.
Original resources of the Rock Springs coal field are 12,993,000,000
tons of bituminous and 3,830,000,000 tons of subbituminous coal. Nearly
30,000 acres has been worked through more than 40 openings along the
west flank, and nearly 5,000 acres has been worked through more than 25
openings on the east flank of the Rock Springs uplift. The total
production from the field to January 1955, was about 192,000,000 tons
(Yourston, 1955, p. 202). These figures represent about 3 percent of
the geographical area and less than 1.5 percent of the total identified
resources of the field.
Coal production in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area will reach 20
million tons annually during the next decade. More than 80 percent of
this amount will be recovered by surface mining.
Resources are defined as coal in beds thick enough that economic extraction is currently or may become feasible. This term should not be confused with reserves of coal, which is defined as those parts of the resource that can be economically mined today.
51
Table 7. Identified original coal resources in the Sweetwater-Kemmererarea (in millions of short tons).
]_ , indicates no data__/
Bituminous
Hams Fork Region:Evans ton field Kemmerer fieldLaBarge fieldBear River field
Green River Region:Rock Springs fieldHenry's Fork field
I/ ° - 2,284
0_ __
4/~ 12,933
0
Strippable Subbituminous Lignite Resources
I/ , .I/" 31A -1,362
1
4/3.830
MM. f 1
0 00
00
-{,000
3/250
0Frewen field 0 Vermillion Creek field ; 0 -130
Berryhill and others, 1950 bituminous coal>14 inches; subbituminouscoal>2.5 feet; under less than 3,000 feet
2/ overburden. Smith and others, 1972 200 feet of bituminous coal under less than 1,400 o / feet overburden Smith and others, 1972 30-40 feet of subbituminous coal under less than / / 200 feet overburden. Root and others, 1973 bituminous coal>14 inches; subbituminous coal>2.5
5/ feet; under less than 3,000 feet overburden. Roehler, Coal resources of the Chicken Creek SW quadrangle, (H._W. Roehler,
unpub. data, 1977), high sulfur subbituminous coal <10 feet; under less than 200 feet overburden.
52
Oil and Gas
The first oil or gas reported in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area was
in 1847 in the Overthrust Belt in sec. 4, T. 13 N., R. 119 W. at an
"oil spring" discovered by Mormon pioneers during their trek to the
Great Salt Lake in Utah (Veatch, 1907, p. 139-140). A similar spring
was discovered in the Overthrust Belt about 20 years later by C. M. White
in NW 1/4 sec. 33, T. 14 N., R. 119 W. The earliest record of oil
drilling was at this spring in 1868, when White drilled a hole to 480
feet. The oil from the well was skimmed and sold to tanners in Salt
Lake City. The first economically significant oil discovery was at
491 feet in a water well drilled by the Union Pacific Railroad in 1900
near Spring Valley in T. 15 N., R. 118 W. (Veatch, 1907, p. 141).
The first natural gas discovery was in the Rock Springs uplift by
the Ohio Oil Company in 1922 in sec. 16, T. 16 N., R. 104 W. in the
southern part of the Baxter Basin. The discovery well produced 36
million cubic feet of gas per day from the Dakota Formation at 2,475
feet. In 1929 a pipeline was built by the Ohio Oil Company and the gas
was marketed in the Great Salt Lake valley (Andrews, 1965, p. 232).
Drilling activity in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area intensified after
the discovery of oil at LaBarge field in 1924, of oil and gas at
Hiawatha Dome in 1928, and of additional gas at Baxter Basin field in
the 1930's. There are currently about 50 oil and gas fields in the area
that produce more than 60 billion cubic feet of natural gas annually
(Crews and others, 1973, p. 105-107), and more than 3 million barrels
of oil annually (Wyo. Geol. Assoc., 1973, p. 14-18). The locations of
oil and gas fields are shown on Plate 6, producing formations are shown on
Figure 11, and production statistics and oil characteristics are shown
on Table 8.
53
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147,123 0
4,01
2,56
9.0
9 7,
698,
432
204,125
135,304
795,900
2,37
2,85
8 010
8,21
9447,401 0
.7
027,378 0
376,826 0
.18
.70
401,
667 0
.12
1,232,384
17,008
2,213,674
2,93
7,10
911
,5720
Cua.
Ca
a (M
CF)
2,542,417
65,431,573
144,643,204
310,
804 0
127,
435,
872
236,012,758
81,4
01,2
955,
521,
754
11,964
2,737
53,1
63,9
32
955,379
4, 641
, 21
826
,237
,691
342,584
4,08
2,90
7 019
2,67
414
,957
,373
8,37
2,03
1903,280
32,795
33,509,947
161,734,483
2,400,111
1,80
9,01
39,734,600
12,7
25,5
2339
1,66
0645,664
1,65
4,34
0829,072
14,913
33,1
97 0
10,3
79,8
10249,103
1,45
0,16
049
3,10
013,804,977
657,
213
35,0
93,5
9716,504,403
24,433
8,020
Phosphate
Deposits of phosphate rock are present in the Phosphoria Formation
in the Overthrust Belt. The formation crops out locally in T. 19 N.,
R. 117 W., T. 21-22 N., R. 121 W., T. 27 N., R. 119 W., and in elongate
north-trending areas as much as 2 miles wide in T. 22-28 N., R. 116-118 W.
(pi. 6). The occurrence of the phosphate was first described by F. B.
Weeks and W. F. Ferrier in 1907 (Schultz, 1914, p. 131). The origin and
the stratigraphic and geographic distribution of the deposits have been
discussed by McKelvey and others (1959) and Sheldon (1955; 1964). The
phosphate is in beds as much as several feet thick that contain 30 percent
or more P«0,-- They formed by divergence upwelling of sea waters during
the Permian Period (Cathcart and Gulbrandsen, 1973, p. 518-519). The
principal chemical constitutents, in order of abundance, are lime, phosphate,
silica, carbon dioxide, organic matter, magnesia, alumina, iron oxide, and
flourine (Cochran, 1950, p. 133). The Phosphoria Formation also contains
small quantities of vanadium, uranium, selenium, molybdenum, zinc,
titanium, nickel, chromium, and cadmium (Love, 1961, p. C282).
The phosphate deposits in the Overthrust Belt have been mined by
the San Francisco Chemical Company near Leefe, Wyo., in T. 21 N., R. 121 W.,
and by Phosphate Mines, Inc., in T. 23-24 N., R. 116 W. Precise resource
estimates are not available, but the deposits underlie hundreds of square
miles, and there may be as much as 250 million short tons in the Sweetwater-
Kemmerer area.
The United States produced 5,605,000 tons of phosphate rocks in 1968,
which was 45 percent of the total world output that year (Lewis, 1970b,
p. 1143). About 70 percent of the domestic consumption of phosphate rocks
is in fertilizer. Other uses include animal feed supplement, detergent,
electroplating, and incendiary bombs (Cathcart and Gulbrandsen, 1973,
p. 516). Mining of phosphate rock in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area is from
open pits, making reclamation programs necessary for mined-out areas.
Flourine, a dangerous gas, is given off during the processing of phosphate
rock to make fertilizer (Lewis, 1970, p. 1149), but is now adequately
controlled by precipitators in the stacks of the phosphate plants.
56
Trona Trona, a complex sodium carbonate mineral, was discovered in the
Green River Basin in 1938 in an oil and gas test well drilled in sec. 2,
T. 18 N., R. 110 W., by Mountain Fuel Supply Company (Brown, 1950, p. 136),
In 1946, following several years of exploratory drilling, Westvaco Company
sank a 12-foot circular concrete-lined shaft to a depth of 1,500 feet in
T. 19 N., R. 110 W. A processing plant was simultaneously constructed
at the mine mouth, and ore was marketed for the first time in 1947
(Jacobucci, 1955, p. 203).
Trona is present in the Wilkins Peak Member of the Green River
Formation in at least 42 beds in an area of about 1,300 square miles
(pi.6). Eleven of these beds are at subsurface depths of 400-3,500 feet,
are more than 6 feet thick, and are potentially minable (Deardorff and
Mannion, 1971, p. 15). Trona has the formula Na-CO-'NaHCO -2H20 in
relative proportions 46.90 percent sodium carbonate, 37.17 percent sodium
bicarbonate, and 15.93 percent water. The mineral has a tabular or
fibrous habit and a dull, vitreous, or silky luster. It is associated
with other saline minerals such as shortite, halite, and nahcolite, and
is interbedded with dolomitic mudstone, oil shale, sandstone, siltstone,
and tuff. The trona-bearing part of the Green River Formation was
deposited by evaporation of saline waters from the previously mentioned
Lake Gosiute.
Trona is extracted by underground mining at the Food Machinery
Corporation (Westvaco) Mine in T. 19 N., R. 110 W., at the Allied
Chemical Company Mine in T. 19 N., R. 109 W., at the Stauffer Mine in
T. 20 N., R. 109 W., and at the Texas Gulf Sulfur Mine in T. 20 N.,
R. Ill W. Culbertson (1966, p. B161) has estimated that there are 67
billion tons of trona in the Green River Basin in beds thicker than 3 feet.
This is the largest deposit of naturally occuring sodium carbonate in the
world. Mined trona is normally converted thermally to soda ash at the
mine-mine mouth plants, a process that upgrades the ore by removing
carbon dioxide, water, and insolubles.
57
In 1970 the United States produced 6.8 million tons and exported
0.3 million tons of sodium carbonate. Identified resources in the United
States, at current rates of consumption, will last at least 5,000 years
(Smith and others, 1973, p. 213). About 50 percent of the soda ash is
consumed for the manufacture of glass, 40 percent for making other chemicals,
8 percent in the paper industry, and 2 percent is used for miscellaneous
uses such as manufacturing soap, detergents, and water softeners (Smith
and others, 1973, p. 206). An important potential use for sodium
bicarbonate, derived from soda ash, is as a cleanser of sulfur dioxide
from stack gases in coal-fired electric-power-generating plants.
Trona mining is not considered harmful to the environment, but
during its conversion to soda ash fine particulates are released to the
atmosphere and form a thin fog-like haze in dominantly eastward, downwind
directions from plant sites. Minor subsidence of surface rocks resulting
from trona mining is discussed in the section on engineering geology.
Halite
Halite, or rock salt (NaCl), was found in disseminated crystals and
in beds a few feet thick interbedded with trona in the southern part
of the Green River Basin in exploratory core holes drilled in the 1940*s
and 1950's by the Union Pacific Railroad and several chemical companies
(pi. 6). When certain naturally occurring sodium brines are evaporated
in the laboratory or in processing plants, precipitation takes place in
stages, with trona coming out of solution before halite. Apparently
this happened during extremely arid periods of time when the confined
saline waters of Lake Gosiute were reduced in size to supersaline ponds
from which, first trona, and then trona and halite, were precipitated.
Halite is not presently economically extractable and none is mined
in the Green River Basin, but Culbertson (1966, p. B161) estimates there
are 35.6 billion tons of mixed trona and halite in beds more than 3 feet
thick. Halite is considered an impurity in trona mining, and hence at
least one-third of the total,trona resources of the area contain sufficient
sodium chloride to make these mixed salts undesirable as a source of
sodium carbonate (Deardorff and Mannion, 1971, p. 28).
58
Halite is used principally as a control agent for ice on highways,
where it has a deleterious effect on vegetation bordering the treated
areas (MacMillan, 1971, p. 1211). If halite, or trona and halite, are
mined in the Green River Basin, contamination of surface waters could
result from the leaching of spoil piles.
Minerals of Potential Economic Value
Oil shale
Oil shale is a tan, brown, to nearly black, very finely textured,
usually laminated rock containing kerogen. The rock matrix can be
either mostly a carbonate (dolomite) or mostly a silicate (shale), so
that the term "oil shale" is ambiguous and has more economic significance
Ihan lighologic meaning. Kerogen is a naturally occurring solid material
Derived from organic matter, that is a precursor of crude oil and coal.
applying heat to oil shale much of the kerogen is converted synthetically
to crude oil.
Many companies, universities, and government agencies have
investigated oil shale for more than 100 years. The earliest mention of
oil shale in the area was in 1871, when Hayden (p. 142) stated that near
the town of Green River, Wyo. dark-colored rock containing an "oily
substance" was used as stove fuel; it burned well, but the ash was as great
as the original mass of rock. The geology of oil shale in the area has
beer studied by Lesquereux (1872), Schultz (1920), Winchester (1923),
Bradley (1926; 1929; 1964), Culbertson (1971), Roehler (1969; 1973c), and
Trudell and others (1973). The origin of oil shale was discussed by
Smith and Stanfield (1965). Current investigations of oil shale by
EROA (formerly the U.S. Bureau of Mines) at a field site in T. 19 N.,
R. 106 W. include experiments on oil recovery by in-situ retorting.
Oil shale is found in the lacustrine Green River Formation, which
underlies more than 8,000 square miles of the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area
(pi. 7). The formation has a maximum thickness of about 3,000 feet.
In Fossil Syncline it is divided into two parts, a lower Fossil Butte
member and an upper Angelo Member. In the remaining parts of the
59
Sweetwater-Kemmerer area, it is divided, in descending order, into the
Laney Member, Wilkins Peak Member, Tipton Shale Member, and Luman Tongue.
All of these stratigraphic units contain oil shale, but only the basal
parts of the Wilkins Peak and Laney Members in local areas have beds of
oil shale that are more than 10 feet thick that will yield more than 25
gallons of oil per ton of rock when assayed. The richer beds are located
in the eastern part of the Green River Basin in T. 14-24 N., R. 105-111 W.,
and in the western part of the Washakie Basin in T. 13-16 N., R. 97-100 W.,
(Root and others, 1973).
It is estimated that the total amount of oil equivalent in place in
oil-shale beds in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area is more than 1 trillion
barrels. Of this amount, however, not more than 50 billion barrels, or
5 percent, are in beds more than 10 feet thick that will yield more than
25 gallons of oil per ton of rock when assayed. There is no record that
oil shale has been mined in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area. Two tracts
of land containing high-quality oil shale in T. 13-14 N., R. 99 W., in the
Washakie Basin were opened for competitive bidding for oil-shale leases
by the Federal Government in 1973. No bids were received, which suggests
that there presently is not sufficient economic incentive to justify a
shale-oil industry in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area.
The effect of oil-shale mining on the natural environment includes
deterioration of water and air quality, disturbance of land, destruction
of vegetation, and dispersion of animal life.
Uranium --,-,,
Uranium is present in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area associated with
phosphates in the Wasatch, Green River, and Phosphoria Formations, and
as oxides in the Ericson Formation. Traces of uranium have been detected
by radioactive anomalies in the Almond and Browns Park Formations.
Uraniferous phosphate of unknown origin occurs northeast of Pine
Mountain in T. 13-14 N., R. 102-103 W. (pi. 7). The mineralized rocks
are variegated tuffaceous mudstone and siltstone in the lower 300 feet of
the Cathedral Bluffs Tongue of the Wasatch Formation. Love (1964, p. E37)
believed that the mineralized zone, which contains as much as 0.3 percent
60
uranium and 19 percent phosphate, would contain 1,470 tons of uranium
and 146,000 tons of phosphate per square mile.
Love (1964, p. E19-E30) also identified 25 uraniferous phosphate
zones in the Wilkins Peak Member of the Green River Formation in scattered
outcrops in the southeast part of the Green River Basin in T. 14-19 N.,
R. 105-107 W. (pi. 7), and in a number of holes cored for trona mostly in
T. 15-23 N., R. 106-109 W. The Wilkins Peak Member is about 1,000 feet
thick and is composed of gray and green dolomitic mudstone and claystone,
and interbedded gray sandstone and siltstone, brown oil shale, and
evaporites. The mineralized zones are 3-6 feet thick, have variable
lithologies, and are spaced throughout the member. The maximum uranium
content is 0.15 percent and the maximum phosphate content is 18.2 percent;
the average for 25 sampled zones is about 0.05 percent uranium and 2.2
percent phosphate (Love, 1964, p. El). None of the deposits has been mined,
but they have been extensively prospected since their discovery in the
early 1950's.
The middle and lower parts of the Phosphoria Formation in the
Overthrust Belt also contain minor quantities of uraniferous phosphate.
Love (1961, p. C282) reported that the uranium content in the richer zones
ranges from 0.01 to 0.02 percent.
Oxides of uranium are present locally in outcrops of the Ericson
Formation on the southeast flank of the Rock Springs uplift in T. 16-19 N.,
R. 101-102 W. The Ericson Formation is about 800 feet thick and is
mostly gray medium- to coarse-grained crossbedded sandstone. A horizontal
tunnel, about 50 feet long, was opened in the upper part of the formation
in the SW 1/4 sec. 28, T. 18 N., R. 101 W. in the late 1950's. Yellow
uranium mineralization was visible in places in the walls of the tunnel,
but the prospect was never a commercial venture and has since been
abandoned.
Dozens of uranium claims have been staked in the Almond Formation on
the east flank of the Rock Springs uplift and in the Browns Park Formation
on Cherokee Ridge at the southern edge of the Washakie Basin. The amount
of uranium in these formations is unknown, but none of the claims has been
worked.
61
Uranium is used mostly to produce nuclear explosives and to generate
electric power, and to lesser extent in the chemical and plastic industries
(DeCarlo and Shortt, 1970, p. 234-238).
Titanium
Littoral sandstone units in the upper part of the Rock Springs Formation
contain titanium in natural placer deposits of heavy minerals in local
areas in T. 14 N., R. 103 W., T. 16 N., R. 102 W., T. 17 N., R. 102 W.,
and T. 18 N., R. 101-102 W. The occurrence of these and similar
sedimentary deposits was discussed by Murphy and Houston (1955). Several
of the deposits on the southeast flank of the Rock Springs uplift have
been mapped by Roehler (Cooper Ridge NE quad, 1977c and Camel Rock quad,
unpub. mapping, 1977).
The titanium-bearing sandstone beds are dark gray, but on exposure
they weather dark reddish brown. The grain-size distribution is about 15
percent coarse, 30 percent medium, 20 percent fine, and 20 percent very
fine sand, and 15 percent silt and clay. Magnetic heavy-mineral fractions,
consisting mainly of ilmenite and magnetite, compose 50 to 55 percent of
the sandstone. The nonmagnetic heavy-mineral fraction is more than 95
percent zircon and minor garnet and rutile. The titanium is found mainly
in ilmenite, which is composed of 52 to 68 percent titanium dioxide (Murphy
and Houston, 1955, p. 193). The only evidence of mining these deposits
are several pits, 50-100 feet in diameter, that were excavated years ago
in the SW 1/4 sec. 19, T. 19 N., R. 101 W.
Titanium is used in industry as an alloy to produce corrosion-
resistant metals, as paint pigment, and in plastics. The deposits in the
Sweetwater-Kemmerer area are small, low-grade, and presently uneconomical
to mine.
62
Potash
Lavas in the Leucite Hills are rich in the mineral leucite, which
has an especially high concentration of potassium. Potassium ore is
referred to as its oxide, "potash" (K 0) . The Leucite Hills were named
by S. F. Emmons, who discovered the leucite during exploration of the area
in 1871 (Carey, 1955, p. 112).
Leucite is a light-colored potassium aluminum silicate, having the
formula ^O-Al^'ASit^ in the proportion of 21.52 percent K 0, 23.33
percent Al 0 , and 55.15 percent SiO (Ladoo and Myers, 1951, p. 278).
Schultz and Cross (1912) have calculated that there are approximately
2 billion tons of rock in the Leucite Hills that contain 200 million tons
of potash. At present no commercial method is known for extracting the
potash from the silicates in the rocks. Concerning the economic potential
of the deposits, Carey (1955, p. 113) wrote:
"..... considerable effort has gone into a search for a commercial method of combining the potash in the leucite-bearing rocks and the phosphorus in the phosphatic shales of the Phorphoria formation to form a fertilizer containing both of these elements in available form. The economic success of such a process appears to depend mainly upon obtaining a local source of large quantities of inexpensive ammonia."
About 95 percent of the potassium produced in the United States is
used as fertilizers, and about 5 percent in the manufacture of drugs, dyes,
and chemical reagents (Lewis, 1970, p. 1163). The Leucite Hills potash
deposits probably will not be utilized for many decades because of the
abundance of more economically recoverable deposits elsewhere in the
United States and Canada.
Zeolites
The zeolite minerals analcime, clinoptilolite, and mordenite are
widely distributed in a 6,000-foot-thick section of Eocene rocks comprising
the Washakie, Green River, and Wasatch Formations. They have been
identified and studied in the Sweetwater-Kennnerer area by Johannsen (1914) ,
Bradley (1928; 1945), Parker and Surdam (1971), and Roehler (1972c) .
63
The zeolite minerals are aluminosilicates formed by the diagenetic
alteration of volcanic glass in air-laid andesitic tuff. Time and depth
of burial are important factors, but the alteration is specifically
related to pH, salinity, and cation content of overlying and interstitial
waters. Zeolite minerals are especially abundant in the Green River
Formation, because the waters of Lake Gosiute were saline, were high in
sodium carbonate, and were at times chemically stratified.
A minable zeolite deposit is the "robins-egg-blue tuff, which
encircles the central part of the Washakie Basin (pi. 7) and is composed
of more than 50 percent Clinoptilolite (Roehler, 1973c, p. 54-55). The
bed ranges in thickness from slightly less than 10 feet to more than 100
feet and has a distinctive blue-green color. R. A. Sheppard of the U.S.
Geological Survey (oral comm., 1972) has estimated the bed contains at
least 5 billion tons of Clinoptilolite. Similar zeolite tuffs are present
in the Green River Basin, but they have not been mapped.
Zeolites are used in industry as agents for moisture absorption and
for deodorization, as an additive to aid in retention of fertilizer on
agricultural lands, and, in the form of clays, for papermaking (Minato and
Utada,1969, p. 132-133). Clinoptilolite, as an agent for the removal of
ammonia nitrate from waste waters, is expected to have its major use in
the control of water pollution (Mercer, 1969, p. 209).
Alunite and Clay
Potentially economic deposits of alunite and clay were discovered
in 1958 in the Bishop Conglomerate on Aspen Mountain in T. 17 N., R. 104 W,
by E. R. Keller of Mountain Fuel Supply Company. The locality was later
investigated by Love and Blackmon (1962, p. D11-D15).
The Bishop Conglomerate is generally 10-50 feet thick and is
composed mostly of rounded cobbles and pebbles of red, white, gray, and
tan quartzite and sparse hornblende gneiss, granite and chert, with
interbedded gray, green, and red sandstone, siltstone, and mudstone. A
few beds of alunite-bearing claystone, as much as 12 feet thick, are
present within the interbedded sequence. The analyses,in percent, of
two samples from a trench dug in the north-center of sec. 26, T. 17 N.,
R. 104 W. , are as follows (Love and Blackmon, 1962, p. D13):
64
Sample A Sample B
Si02 8.0 16.0
A1203 32.0 29.5
Fe203 1.5 .4
MgO .5 1.0
CaO .1 .1
K 0 6.8 5.8
Ti02 .1 .1
S03 37.0 33.0
Li20 .01 .01
Na20 .58 .49
H20 >10.0 >10.0
Associated with the alunite are as much as 25 percent clay minerals consisting
of kaolinite, montmorillonite, and halloysite. The deposit probably formed
during early Tertiary hydrothermal activity, when ascending hot solutions
dissolved country rock and precipitated alunite and clay.
Alunite, KA1_(SO.) 0 (OH) . , is a white mineral that has value as a J 4 2. o
source of aluminum and potash. Kaolinite, montmorillonite, and halloysite
are white or light-gray fine-textured minerals composed of -hydrous aluminum
(or magnesium) silicates. Clays have a variety of uses in fired materials,
paper, chemicals, rubber, paint, and fillers. The deposits on Aspen
Mountain are small, but they are minable.
Helium
Helium is a minor constituent of natural gas at South Baxter Basin
Gas Field in the Rock Springs uplift in T. 16-17 N., R. 103-104 W. Helium
is a lightweight inert gas that is an end product of the radioactive decay
of uranium and thorium. Its origin at the South Baxter Basin Gas Field
is unknown, but its distribution there suggests that it may be associated
with hydrothermal activity at Aspen Mountain.
The highest concentration of helium is in gas from the Dakota
Formation. Natural gas in the Dakota Formation is composed of 76.6 percent
methane, 0.6 percent ethane, 20.6 percent nitrogen, 0.72 percent helium,
and 2.2 percent carbon dioxide; the gas has a heating value of 787 Btu/cu
ft. It also contains 65 to 85 grains of hydrogen sulfide per 100 cu ft
65
of gas (Biggs and Espach, 1960, p. 23, 287). Natural gas in the Frontier
Formation is composed of 92.4 percent methane, 3.5 percent ethane, 1.2
percent nitrogen, 0.4 percent oxygen, 0.09 percent helium, and 2.5 percent
carbon dioxide; it has a heating value of 999 Btu/cu ft (Biggs and Espach,
1960, p. 287).
The original helium reserves of the field have not been estimated
and no attempt has been made to recover the helium during the marketing
of natural gas. Since 1929, about 150 billion cu ft of natural gas
have been produced at the field, and the natural gas (and helium) reserves
are now nearly depleted.
Sulfur
Natural gas containing hydrogen sulfide (H_S) is a potential source
for large quantities of sulfur in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area. Hydrogen
sulfide is in natural gases in the Nugget, Phosphoria, Weber, and Madison
Formations at the North Baxter Basin Gas Field in T. 19-20 N., R. 104 W.,
in the Amsden and Madison Formations at the Church Buttes-Butcherknife
Springs Gas Fields in T. 15-17 N., R. 112 W., and in the Phosphoria and
Weber Formations at Brady Field in T. 16-17 N., R. 100-101 W. The gas
from the Phosphoria Formation at Brady Field contains more than 30
percent hydrogen sulfide. The origin of Hydrogen sulfide in natural gases
can be explained by several theories: (1) simultaneous hydrogen sulfide
and methane generation in freshwater swamps; (2) sulfate in ground water
coming in contact with petroleum, which activates anerobic, sulfur-
reducing bacteria; and (3) petroleum entrapment in beds of anhydrite
(Bodenlos, 1973, p. 612).
Hydrogen sulfide can be extracted from natural gas, and elemental
sulfur recovered from the hydrogen sulfide by a number of patented processes
(Lewis, 1970a, p. 1251-1252). As a byproduct of the natural-gas industry
it provides 7 percent of the total production in the United States. Sulfur
is used mainly in the manufacture of sulphuric acid. It is used in the
manufacture of soluble fertilizer, synthetic fibers, plastics, papers,
pigments, explosives, petroleum products, drugs, and insecticides (Bodenlos,
1973, p. 606.
66
Hydrogen sulfide gas is extremely poisonous. Where it is produced
with methane, it is extracted and burned to upgrade the gas to pipeline
quality. At Brady Field, and for miles around the field, a strong sulfurous
odor is present in the atmosphere as a result of the production and
extraction of hydrogen sulfide.
Copper, silver and zinc
Copper* silver, and zinc occur in the Nugget sandstone in the Lake
Alice District in T. 27-28 N., R. 117-118 W. in the Overthrust Belt.
In a historical sketch of the district, Lloyd (1970, p. 131-134) stated
that the first attempt to mine the deposits was in 1895 by the Collett
Mining Company. Mining activity continued there intermittently through
1920, but was then discontinued because of mining and transportation
problems. Love and Antweiler (1973, p. 141) reported that another
unsuccessful attempt was made to mine the deposits during World War II.
The Nugget Sandstone in the Lake Alice District is 500-700 feet
thick and consists of dull-red, mostly fine grained sandstone. Copper,
silver, and zinc minerals occur as carbonates and sulfides.in scattered
gray, brown, black, and green altered zones mostly in the upper 50 feet
of the sandstone. Chemical analyses of samples from several mines in the
district indicate that the ore contains 180-67,000 ppm copper, 1-1,200 ppm
silver, and 18-31,000 ppm zinc (Love and Antweiler, 1973, p. 143). Several
theories have been advanced concerning the origin of the Lake Alice
deposits. Love and Antweiler (1973, p. 146) believed that the deposits
could have resulted from the ionic exchange of sulfate ions from anhydrite
in beds overlying the Nugget Sandstone, followed by bacterial action
that reduced sulfate to sulfide ions, and then the combining of metals
derived from residual oils in the Nugget Sandstone and sulfide ions to
precipitate insoluble metallic sulfides.
Copper mineralization has been reported in red beds in the Beckwith
Formation at a locality at the Rock Creek-Needles anticline in T. 18 N.,
R. 120 W. Veatch (1907, p. 163) described the deposit as follows:
67
"The red beds are here involved in an overturned anticline, and at three places along the axis of this anticline copper carbonates have been found in a gray sandstone containing considerable vegetable matter. The prospects are all shallow surface pits, and there is no evidence that surface work will yield returns. Deep prospecting alone might yield value....."
Copper mineralization was also reported by Veatch (1907, p. 163)
in a small area in the valley of Rock Creek, 6 miles north of Nugget, in
T. 22 N., R. 118 W. Copper carbonates were found there in horizontal
tunnels opened in the Ankareh Formation along a small, faulted, compressed
anticline. There is no indication that this deposit has commercial value.
Black Water
Black water was discovered in the Wilkins Peak Member of the Green
River Formation by J. R. McDermott of Wyoming Trona Company in an
exploratory hole drilled for trona in sec. 5, T. 23 N., R. 106 W. (Dana
and Smith, 1976, p. 9). Black water has since been found in 23 other holes
drilled in a 75- to 100-square-mile area of the Green River Basin near
Farson in T. 23-25 N., R. 106-108 W. (pi. 7). Black water consists of
organic acids dissolved in sodium carbonate brines. The pH of the water
is between 9.9 and 11.2; the maximum content of organic acids is about
20 weight percent, and the maximum C09 content is about 2.4 weight percent
(Dana and Smith, 1973, p. 155). The origin of the black water is unknown,
but it is certainly genetically related to oil shale and evaporites found
in the Wilkins Peak Member in most parts of the Green River Basin. Black
water is a potential source of soda ash and oil. Dana and Smith (1976,
p. 12) have demonstrated that a black-water flow of 200 gallons per
minute could produce 62 tons of soda ash and 130 tons of organic matter
daily. The organic matter would yield 73.3 weight percent oil when
heated in an inert atmosphere.
68
Construction Materials
Construction materials in the form of sand, gravel, and crushable
aggregate rock are abundant in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area (pi. 8). The
materials are contained in valley alluvium, sand dunes, glacial outwash,
terrace gravels, and volcanic rock of Tertiary and Quaternary ages. Sands
and gravels in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area are composed mostly of quartz,
quartzite, and chert, and lesser amounts of limestone, sandstone and
siltstone.
Sand resources are mostly in a west-trending dune field at the
northern tip of the Rock Springs uplift in T. 23-24 N., R. 97-107 W.,
and in scattered dune fields in the Washakie Basin in T. 13-16 N.,
R. 95-98 W. The dunes that cross the northern tip of the Rock Springs
uplift are actively migrating eastward; those in the Washakie Basin have
been mostly stabilized by vegetation. The sand in these dune fields is
composed of 60 to 90 percent quartz.
Tertiary terrace deposits consisting of clay, sand, pebbles, cobbles,
and boulders compose the Bishop Conglomerate on Aspen Mountain and Bacon
Ridge, and cap numerous small buttes and mesas in other parts of the Rock
Springs uplift and in the southern part of the Green River Basin. The
Bishop Conglomerate is consolidated, but the area also has many small
terraces capped by unconsolidated gravels.
Glacial outwash consisting of clay, silt, sand, pebbles, cobbles, and
boulders occupies floodplains of the Big Sandy River and its tributaries
in the vicinity of Farson in T. 24-26 N., R. 105-106 W. This material
was derived from Pleistocene alpine glaciers in the Wind River Mountains
to the north. Glacial outwash also composes parts of the floodplain of
the Blacks Fork River in the vicinity of Mountain View in T. 13-16 N.,
R. 114-116 W. This material originated from Pleistocene alpine glaciers
in the Uinta Mountains to the south.
The principal gravel deposits in the Sweetwater-Kemmerer area are in
valley alluvium along major drainageways. Large deposits of this type are
located along the Green, Hams Fork, and Bear Rivers (pi. 8).
69
The Leucite Hills volcanic field has benches composed of lava that
can be crushed and used for aggregate or as decorative building stone
(Root and others, 1973). Cinder cones on Zirkle Butte in T. 21 N.,
R. 102 W., and on Steamboat Butte in T. 23 N., R. 102 W. contain pumice,
which can be utilized as a light-weight aggregate for concretes or cinder
blocks.
70
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75
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76
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77
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78
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80